Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer

Question Motion is the proper passion of mobile

• What is the ultimate component of
things?
(Of Nature)
• How come things change?
• What is the principle of change?
Cosmos = Universe
being & not of bodies
Quo: immateriality
Endowed: Property to | or Supply
Cosmology seeks to understand mobile
being as such that is the being in sensible
matter and in motion.

Logos = Reason Philosophy of Nature

To answer fundamental questions about the Is a philosophical science that deals
universe
with the ultimate/first causes of
Philosophy of Nature Mobile beings in the light of natural
• Perfect knowledge of beings subject reason?
to change Endowed: Property to | or Supply
Perfect: ULTIMATE / FIRST CAUSES Movement
Change: Age, growth, movement, etc.
Parmenides: Permanence
Local movement
Heraclitus: Change
Qualitative movement
Plato: Two Worlds (Matter &
Quantitative movement
Ideas/Forms)

Things that change is called Mobile Beings

Aristotle & St. Thomas: Material
World is REAL
Objects Hylomorphism
Material Object: natural bodies that are
Material Beings - Two Ultimate
sensible
(Mobile Beings)
Principles:
Matter & Form
Formal Object
Plato Reconcile both
Quod: first cause of
Mobile Being endowed with Motion
P and H

not body Movement or Change

Mobile beings as root of change • Act of a being in as much as it
is in potency
Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer

• There is something Change

moving:
• Accidental Change/Movement
Act of a being in as much
as it is in potency • Change that do not
change the substance
• There was a movement:
Transformation of an • Eg. Change of
object from potency to Location, Color,
act etc.
Movement: not in 1 point but in 2 • Substantial Change
points
• Change that change the
(Terminus a quo to substance
Terminus ad quem)
• Eg. Burning a
in-between: potency to Paper: Paper to
the point of arrival ash
“Imperfect act of • Subject – required
an imperfect being” for a movement
(Eg. The PEN)
Plato Reconcile both P and H
• INANIMATE
Being BEINGS requires
agents to move
Substance = Prime
Matter & Substantial
Form | Humans (cause of
individuality of human
beings & soul)
Prime Matter has innate
appetite to be united
with the substantial form
Nothing moves by itself,
INANIMATE BEINGS have
Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer

extrinsic causes of movements • Instrumental –

(agents). hammer
Change • Final – Statue
• 2 ultimate principles of subjects
Cause is talk of dependence
having attained the complete
(dependence of an agent |
perfection:
The Pen)
• Prime Matter
3 types of change in
• Substantial Form
sensible experience:
• 3 ultimate principles of subjects Qualitative, Quantitative
not having attained perfection: (parts of something -
• Prime Matter properties of an object) and
• Substantial Form local
• Privation Substance & Accidents
Principle is that from which • Substance – “own”
something proceeds (The Origin).
-invisible
Causes of Change • Accidents – “inhere”
• 2 Extrinsic Cause -visible
• Material – Block of Substantial Form &
Marble Prime Matter
• Formal – Shape of the - movement of a being
Statue
Nature
• 2 Intrinsic Cause
- principle of movement
• Efficient
- essence
 Principal-
sculptor
Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer

Quantity
• 2 Kinds of Quantity:
• Continuous
A quantity with one
Inhere – exist permanently in…. limit
We see substance through • Discrete
accidents ... Size shape color etc. Several Quantities
Quantity that form a unit or
do not form a unit
• Quantity is a
determination of a being Quantity

• To have parts along Primary Formal Effect:

with other parts (a Actual extension with
part is outside respect to itself
other parts)
Secondary Formal
• Order in the parts Effect:
• Whole Actual extension with
Quantity is not substance respect to place

Quantity is to material Divisibility

substance which have Measurability
quantitative parts
Impenetrability
Form is related to Units
Matter is related to Division
Quantity as accidental Act
Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer

Number
Number follows quantity
(oldness, longness,
heaviness, how many, etc.)
Quantity Number is ratio of 2 or more
quantities
Principle of Individuation
Number, a concept; What
Matter signed by
exists are distinct units
quantity
Principle of Specification
Created Material; materiality
Substantial Form
+ quantity: Substance
Principle of Divisibility quantified, an individual
Prime Matter substance
Substantial Form It leads to time (history) and
space
Time
• Experience of instant
or actual moment
• Individual Substance: • Experience of
• Undivided in itself, duration
divided from others
• Number or
• Individual Notes:
measurement of
Name, figure, motion, place, etc.
Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer

movement according Time

to before and after • Uniting Part of Time
• Augustine: Present: The
• Implies
Breviary
consciousness
• Heidegger: Future:
• Time is not a Death

movement • Ricoeur: Past: Birth of

Christ
and movement is not
• Reality of Time
time
• Time is linear not circular
• Past, Present, Future (The Nile River Flood)

Space & Place

• Represents two aspects of
the same reality
• Space: aspect of distance
• Place: aspect of concrete
limits
Somebody who measures
Watch: Objective Time (Cosmic Time)
Time Objective Aspect: Movement
Time Subjective Aspect:
Consciousness | Time is subjective:
45 min Class for students is long |
Dating may take something longer
Space
Continuity of time: There is past, • Distance between to
present and future in mind material quantified
Augustine in Time: Breviary example entities
 Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer

2 spaces: • Immaterial
External: between two
bodies
Internal: between two parts
of the same body

Immaterial: if it was material

it would be like clothes.
Quality
• Substance is ready to
be modified by
quality
• Primary Formal Effect
Is Space Real: Modification
Space is a mental concept but based
• Act (Secondary Act)
on reality because you can’t have a
distance without the presence of two that determines the
real and concrete material entities substance
connected with quantity.

Place • Directly sensible and

has specific diversity
 That which
of intensity and is
circumscribes/surrounds
the body immediately heterogeneous
 Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer

• Quantity per se of
quality:
difference in quantity
Modification: Modifies the
Doctrine of Hylomorphism
Substance
• Movement:
Secondary Act because first Act Hylo/Morphism
is Substantial Form
Greek: hylo and
Substance (PM + SF) morphe
SDOI = reds (matter – form)
Hetero = (color, Odor) • External principle -
4 Different Species of Quality the sun, water
• Habit/Disposition • Internal principle -
• Potency/Impotency what constitutes the
reality - man is
• Passion/Partible Quality
constituted by or
• Form/Figure
composed of body
• Quantity per accidens of and soul.
quality:
The influence of
• Prime Matter:
dimension creates a The first subject
difference. Eg. Color of which a thing is
Spot made - not
accidental.
Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer

• Substantial Form: • Principles in the

The shape the process of
prime matter generation/movemen
takes - this is t: Elements involved
accidental. in movement
The theory that all physical • 1. The mobile subject
things are constituted of 2 - a subject that is
internal principles: The moving or changing
one remains the same • 2. “Terminus a quo” of
throughout all change and the movement - point
is the passive basis of of departure
continuity and identity in
• 3. “Terminus ad
the physical world - this is
quem” - point of
the prime matter. The
arrival
other is displaced or
removed from actuation • 4. The Movement
of the matter in itself - its
substantial change - this is intermediate process
substantial form. between 2 points.
Principles of man’s
Principle is what is movement? - Primary
depended on for matter, substantial form
something else’s and privation.
existence.
Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer

Characteristics of Prime have form as act, must

matter and substantial have act and potency.
form Impotency - matter cannot
PM and SF are the exist without act (form).
essential parts of a natural To exist means to act -
composite substance prime matter has no act
without form.
Prime Matter is the first
subject of which a thing is Prime Matter is the
made – not in accidental substance, which is not an
way or mode. accident but a substrate of
the accidents.
PM is pure potency - it
cannot exist without a Substare – “be
determined SF - that’s why underneath.” Prime
we call it “pure potency.” Matter carries and
sustains the accidents.
PM has innate inclination
Never a moment of prime
to a GOOD which
matter being left alone -
corresponds to it. This
always with substantial
inclination is to a SF.
form.
Primary (‘prime’ 1st)
Prime Matter and
matter excludes form -
substantial form are
form is act, not subject.
objects behind the
PM is pure potency - if you
“matter”.
Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer

Substantial form is the Between the paper

principle of specification which burns and the
and principle of operation. ashes that are
Determines a mobile being created, prime matter
in this or that species. SF is remains.
the first act, so first • Both are essential
principle of operation. parts of a substance
Principle of unity in an and cannot exist in
organism, shows definite reality without one
specific aspects, constant another. Substance is
behavior. not an accident, but a
Form is an act from which substrate of the
a ‘structural program’ of accidents. Substance
matter is derived. is “underneath” the
Substantial form - Prime accident.
act of substantial matter.
• Substance
act co-created with matter
- shape is just an accident. • 1) Prime Matter
Form is just an act of prime • 2) Substantial form -
matter. these are intrinsic
• What is difference principles death is
between plant and substantial change -
man - principle of soul leaves body.
specification.
Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer

Substance is that
which is essential.
Substance equivalent to
essence or nature.
Substrare - to be under.
Substance is underneath,
accidents on top and
carried. 1. Substrate - something that
links accidents to
• Accidents: secondary substance.
subjects 2. Substance is not an
accident, but a substrate.
• There is a rock, the 3. Only substance can subsist
rock is sculptured to a - can exist independently.
statue. This is Substance equivalent to
accidental change. essence or nature.
Time and space: definition,
• intelligence is formal and material
accidental change. foundation
• act co-created with • Space: Space implies a
matter - shape is just relation between 2
corporeal bodies. This
an accident. accidents distance is real because the
- color, quantity and foundation is taken from
change in volume real objects. Not just
imaginary - you can
10 Predicates measure it.
 Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer
• Space has 3 dimensions -
length, width and height,
and one dimension in time -
a being exists within a
certain period of time.
• There can be no space
without bodies or
independent from bodies.
• No problem with infinite
division. The relation of
distance constitutes the
idea of space.
• For both time and space,
we need them attached to
relate to movement - In
order to cover a certain
distance, you need a certain
time.
Time and space: definition, formal
and material foundation
Time: Continuum is a succession -
before and after without ever
existing simultaneously. Time has
parts whose limits coincide.
Space and Time are examples of a
continuum. Infinitely divisible and
have real, potential parts.
Roger Bacon - nature tends to fill up
any semblance of vacuum. “Horror
vacui” - nature abhors the empty.
Leibniz thought empty space
metaphysically impossible.
Newton needed it to explain
mechanical movement of celestial
bodies.
Time and space: definition, formal
and material foundation
Place: A reality that immediately
surrounds an object. An area with
determined, concrete limits.
2 ways of being in a Place –
Being reasonable as in man or
water being in a container.
A place is mainly immaterial. If it
were material it would be a body
covering other bodies.
Philosophical and Scientific time
• The formal basis of time is
the conscious subject
(person) who counts and
measures it.
• The material basis of time is
the movement which exists
outside the subject.
Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer

• Formal object of Time is alteration. Internal - the

Movement. succession of our
thoughts.)
• Is Time real?
The past and future are • Time - measurement of
parts of time but they don’t movement and rest
exist. As a consequence, according to before and
time is not something real. after.
Only the present is real or in Eg. How much time to
act. repair building - before and
after.
• We perceive the passage of
time when we observe • Time is connected with
some movement in movement, but movement
succession (External - local is not time.
movement, qualitative Eg. A car can be faster or
alteration. Internal - the slower but time is always
succession of our the same.
thoughts.) • Aristotle said there would
• Is Time real? be no time if there was no
The past and future are person to keep track of it.
parts of time but they don’t
• Philosophical Time:
exist. As a consequence,
time is not something real. • Augustine unites time with
Only the present is real or in the ‘present.’ Past becomes
act. present through memory,
present made actual
• We perceive the passage of
through attention and
time when we observe
some movement in • the future is present
succession (External - local through expectation.
movement, qualitative
Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer
• Heidegger unites time with
the ‘future’. Man is a being
unto death. Past is a story
of man’s struggle to avoid
death, the present
• is a testimony of his effort
to avoid death, and he is
anxious about how he can
avoid death in the future.
(strong socio-political
• influence from WW II)
• Ricoeur - time with the
past. The present is the
effect of past experience,
and the future will be an
extension of this
recounting.
• Scientific Time:
• Absolute time of Newton:
There is a uniform time for
everybody in everyplace in
the universe. Simultaneous
time.
• Relative time of Einstein:
My time is not your time.
Time on Mars different
from time on earth.
• Subjective time of Kant:
Time is a mental structure
which stays in the mind
even when one forgets
about time.
• Clock in Bonn, Germany is a
cesium-beam clock and
custodian of Earth time.
Earth doesn’t keep good
time.
• From the 2nd law of
thermodynamics, physicists
determine the direction of
time as irreversibly
oriented towards ‘a
maximum
• level of disorganization,’ a
stage called maximum
chaos. Entropy.
• Biological Time shared with
other living creatures.
Flowers open and close at
certain times of day. HB
craves rest and are
• heading to the maximum
level of chaos - we get older
each day.
Philosophy of Nature (Cosmology) Reviewer

• Religious Time: For pagans, • Some scientists say no

things repeat - birth, death, absolute determinism
rebirth. Catholic time not because of presence of
cyclical time. Christ died
man. In man you have
once and for all.
freedom/choice and
• Time is linear for us. body subject
The future of the universe: • to biological and
Determinism and physical law.
Indeterminism
• Determinism: Implied
order, and in this order
you follow a certain law.
Sodium and chloride will
always make salt.
• Nature determines
behavior. Enlarge this to
material world is
determined, or under
this metaphysical view
of Determinism -
• sun always comes up.
Behind this order, is a
Primary (First) Cause.
The rest is just
secondary cause.