“Matter” and “Form” in the Definition, according to Thomas Aquinas. An Analysis of the Specific Case of “Man”
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“Form” and “matter” constitute, for Thomas, the “essence” of the sensible composite substance, and thus both must integrate its “definition”. However, both terms can be taken in different senses, giving rise to a diversity of ways of understanding the composition of the sensitive substance, and different ways of establishing its “definition.” Focusing on the case of the composite substance “Man”, we propose in this brief work to highlight the different ways in which Aquinas conceives the composition of “Man” based on three different meanings of “form” and “matter”, and to show how the different models of “definition” of human reality are configured from them.
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