Whether the Soul Is Composed of Matter and Form?
Objection 1: It would seem that the soul is composed of matter and
form. For potentiality is opposed to actuality. Now, whatsoever
things are in actuality participate of the First Act, which is God;
by participation of Whom, all things are good, are beings, and are
living things, as is clear from the teaching of Dionysius (Div. Nom.
v). Therefore whatsoever things are in potentiality participate of
the first potentiality. But the first potentiality is primary matter.
Therefore, since the human soul is, after a manner, in potentiality;
which appears from the fact that sometimes a man is potentially
understanding; it seems that the human soul must participate of
primary matter, as part of itself.
Obj. 2: Further, wherever the properties of matter are found, there
matter is. But the properties of matter are found in the
soul--namely, to be a subject, and to be changed, for it is a subject
to science, and virtue; and it changes from ignorance to knowledge
and from vice to virtue. Therefore matter is in the soul.
Obj. 3: Further, things which have no matter, have no cause of their
existence, as the Philosopher says _Metaph._ viii (Did. vii, 6). But
the soul has a cause of its existence, since it is created by God.
Therefore the soul has matter.
Obj. 4: Further, what has no matter, and is a form only, is a pure
act, and is infinite. But this belongs to God alone. Therefore the
soul has matter.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine (Gen. ad lit. vii, 7,8,9) proves that
the soul was made neither of corporeal matter, nor of spiritual
matter.
_I answer that,_ The soul has no matter. We may consider this question
in two ways. First, from the notion of a soul in general; for it
belongs to the notion of a soul to be the form of a body. Now, either
it is a form by virtue of itself, in its entirety, or by virtue of
some part of itself. If by virtue of itself in its entirety, then it
is impossible that any part of it should be matter, if by matter we
understand something purely potential: for a form, as such, is an act;
and that which is purely potentiality cannot be part of an act, since
potentiality is repugnant to actuality as being opposite thereto. If,
however, it be a form by virtue of a part of itself, then we call that
part the soul: and that matter, which it actualizes first, we call the
"primary animate."
Secondly, we may proceed from the specific notion of the human soul
inasmuch as it is intellectual. For it is clear that whatever is
received into something is received according to the condition of the
recipient. Now a thing is known in as far as its form is in the
knower. But the intellectual soul knows a thing in its nature
absolutely: for instance, it knows a stone absolutely as a stone; and
therefore the form of a stone absolutely, as to its proper formal
idea, is in the intellectual soul. Therefore the intellectual soul
itself is an absolute form, and not something composed of matter and
form. For if the intellectual soul were composed of matter and form,
the forms of things would be received into it as individuals, and so
it would only know the individual: just as it happens with the
sensitive powers which receive forms in a corporeal organ; since
matter is the principle by which forms are individualized. It follows,
therefore, that the intellectual soul, and every intellectual
substance which has knowledge of forms absolutely, is exempt from
composition of matter and form.
Reply Obj. 1: The First Act is the universal principle of all acts;
because It is infinite, virtually "precontaining all things," as
Dionysius says (Div. Nom. v). Wherefore things participate of It not
as a part of themselves, but by diffusion of Its processions. Now as
potentiality is receptive of act, it must be proportionate to act.
But the acts received which proceed from the First Infinite Act, and
are participations thereof, are diverse, so that there cannot be one
potentiality which receives all acts, as there is one act, from which
all participated acts are derived; for then the receptive
potentiality would equal the active potentiality of the First Act.
Now the receptive potentiality in the intellectual soul is other than
the receptive potentiality of first matter, as appears from the
diversity of the things received by each. For primary matter receives
individual forms; whereas the intelligence receives absolute forms.
Hence the existence of such a potentiality in the intellectual soul
does not prove that the soul is composed of matter and form.
Reply Obj. 2: To be a subject and to be changed belong to matter by
reason of its being in potentiality. As, therefore, the potentiality
of the intelligence is one thing and the potentiality of primary
matter another, so in each is there a different reason of subjection
and change. For the intelligence is subject to knowledge, and is
changed from ignorance to knowledge, by reason of its being in
potentiality with regard to the intelligible species.
Reply Obj. 3: The form causes matter to be, and so does the agent;
wherefore the agent causes matter to be, so far as it actualizes it
by transmuting it to the act of a form. A subsistent form, however,
does not owe its existence to some formal principle, nor has it a
cause transmuting it from potentiality to act. So after the words
quoted above, the Philosopher concludes, that in things composed of
matter and form "there is no other cause but that which moves from
potentiality to act; while whatsoever things have no matter are
simply beings at once." [*The Leonine edition has, "simpliciter sunt
quod vere entia aliquid." The Parma edition of St. Thomas's
Commentary on Aristotle has, "statim per se unum quiddam est . . .
et ens quiddam."]
Reply Obj. 4: Everything participated is compared to the participator
as its act. But whatever created form be supposed to subsist "per
se," must have existence by participation; for "even life," or
anything of that sort, "is a participator of existence," as Dionysius
says (Div. Nom. v). Now participated existence is limited by the
capacity of the participator; so that God alone, Who is His own
existence, is pure act and infinite. But in intellectual substances
there is composition of actuality and potentiality, not, indeed, of
matter and form, but of form and participated existence. Wherefore
some say that they are composed of that "whereby they are" and that
"which they are"; for existence itself is that by which a thing is.
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