Book contents
- Aristotle’s Ontology of Artefacts
- Aristotle’s Ontology of Artefacts
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Platonic Heritage
- Chapter 2 Using Artefacts against Plato
- Chapter 3 Aristotle’s Building Blocks in the Physics
- Chapter 4 Artefacts as Hylomorphic Compounds
- Chapter 5 Forms of Artefacts as Inert and Intermittent
- Chapter 6 The Relation between Matter and Form in Artefacts
- Chapter 7 The Relation Between Parts and Whole in Artefacts
- Chapter 8 The Physics and Metaphysics of Artefacts
- Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Subject Index
Chapter 7 - The Relation Between Parts and Whole in Artefacts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 December 2023
- Aristotle’s Ontology of Artefacts
- Aristotle’s Ontology of Artefacts
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 The Platonic Heritage
- Chapter 2 Using Artefacts against Plato
- Chapter 3 Aristotle’s Building Blocks in the Physics
- Chapter 4 Artefacts as Hylomorphic Compounds
- Chapter 5 Forms of Artefacts as Inert and Intermittent
- Chapter 6 The Relation between Matter and Form in Artefacts
- Chapter 7 The Relation Between Parts and Whole in Artefacts
- Chapter 8 The Physics and Metaphysics of Artefacts
- Conclusions
- Bibliography
- Index Locorum
- Subject Index
Summary
The immediate reason for which artefacts are not substances is arrived at only by means of the consideration of matter as parts and the focus on the relation of parts and whole, which is undertaken in this chapter. Indeed, artefacts fail to satisfy the substantiality criterion, according to which no substance is composed of parts present in it in actuality (Met. Z 13). I show that Aristotle regards living beings as constituted of parts in potentiality, while he conceives of artefacts as constituted of parts present in actuality. Because their parts are in actuality, artefacts are not as unified as substances, but because artefacts still possess an inherent form, they cannot be downgraded to mere heaps. Thus, artefacts are hylomorphic compounds, but not substances at all.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Aristotle's Ontology of Artefacts , pp. 219 - 250Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023