The Thomistic Institute Aquinas and the Basic Principles of the Material World I Prof. Michael Gorman
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Sep 22, 2025 Michael Gorman, a Professor of Philosophy at The Catholic University of America, dives into Aquinas’s philosophy of the material world. He unpacks the four causes with intriguing examples, clarifies hylomorphism's role in change, and critiques atomistic persistence. Gorman distinguishes between substantial and accidental changes, introducing Aquinas’s concept of prime matter as pure potentiality. The discussion further explores how material and spiritual realms differ, enriching our understanding of metaphysics and natural philosophy.
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Three Branches Of Knowledge
- Aquinas distinguishes metaphysics, mathematics, and natural science by whether studied things require matter and whether their definitions involve matter.
- The material world is the realm studied by natural science: things that both exist in matter and are defined by matter.
Four Causes As Different Explanations
- The four causes are material, formal, efficient, and final causes offering different explanatory questions about a thing.
- These causes answer distinct why-questions, e.g., bronze (material), shape (formal), sculptor (efficient), and purpose (final).
Statue Example Explains Four Causes
- Gorman illustrates the four causes with a statue: bronze, shape, sculptor, and honoring someone as four separate explanations.
- He emphasizes that the same question phrase can request four different kinds of answers.
