This is the second in a series on the doctrine of transubstantiation. Here I want to focus on further theological reasons for preferring Aristotelian hylomorphism to any kind of substance dualism (like Cartesianism). Here is what the Council of Trent taught about the Eucharist: “In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist ‘the body andContinue reading ““Body, blood, soul, and divinity””
Category Archives: Accidents
Staunch Hylomorphism and Transubstantiation
Aristotelian natural philosophy, also known as “hylomorphism,” has the capacity to treat middle-sized things, like human beings, wafers of bread, and goblet-filling bits of wine, as first-class citizens of our ontology, that is, as substances. Substances, on this view, are unified wholes composed of matter and form, whose substantial forms impose certain powers and potentialitiesContinue reading “Staunch Hylomorphism and Transubstantiation”
From Quantum Entanglement to a Cosmic Substance?
Non-Locality: Action vs. Influence at a Distance It is true that, as Bell’s theorem demonstrated, quantum theory is deeply committed to superluminal influence or coordination. But we have to distinguish between violations of Parameter Independence and violations of Outcome Independence (to use Abner Shimony’s distinction, Shimony 1984). Mere violations of Outcome Independence require only aContinue reading “From Quantum Entanglement to a Cosmic Substance?”
Persistence of Material Parts Through Substantial Change
Here’s a problem that I’ve wrestled with for years: do the material parts (not just at the level of prime matter) of a substance survive through substantial change? For example, suppose a bit of watery fluid is extracted from my eye and placed on a microscope slide. Call the bit of watery stuff W. WhenContinue reading “Persistence of Material Parts Through Substantial Change”
Is Substantiality Accidental?
Is substantiality accidental? Can something change from being a substance to being a non-substantial part and back again? Can something change from being fundamental to being non-fundamental or vice versa? It’s clear that things cannot gain or lose the status of being fundamental, since being grounded by something else is anchored in a thing’s essence,Continue reading “Is Substantiality Accidental?”
Substances, Accidents, and the Tiling Principle
Jonathan Schaffer has proposed the Tiling Principle. Here’s a version of the principle, translated into Aristotelian terms: Strong Tiling Principle TPS1. Necessarily, no substance is a proper part of any other substance. TPS2. Necessarily, the sum of all substances includes every real thing as a part. I will call the conjunction of TPS1 and TPS2Continue reading “Substances, Accidents, and the Tiling Principle”
The Survival of Accidents and Material Parts
I will assume that individual accidents have real definitions, but that these definitions are shared by all the members of an infima species of quality, quantity, or whatever. These definitions include some predication of properties to an external entity (the substance in which an accident must inhere). But the definition won’t include any particular substanceContinue reading “The Survival of Accidents and Material Parts”
The Analytic Thomist 