Gastvortrag zur neuen Publikation „Form, Matter, Substance“ von Kathrin Koslicki (Oxford University Press 2018) [Einladung]

Seminarraum VI der Theologischen Fakultät (Karl-Rahner-Platz 3, 1. Stock)

In this presentation, I introduce and present highlights from my recent book, Form, Matter, Substance (Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, 2018). In this book, I defend a hylomorphic analysis of concrete particular objects (e.g., living organisms). The Aristotelian doctrine of hylomorphism holds that those entities that fall under it are compounds of matter (hulē) and form (morphē or eidos). I argue that a hylomorphic analysis of concrete particular objects is well-equipped to compete with alternative approaches when measured against a wide range of criteria of success. A successful application of the doctrine of hylomorphism to the special case of concrete particular objects, however, hinges on how hylomorphists conceive of the matter composing a concrete particular object, its form, and the hylomorphic relations which hold between a matter-form compound, its matter and its form. Through the detailed answers to these questions I develop in this book, matter-form compounds, despite their metaphysical complexity, emerge as occupying the privileged ontological status traditionally associated with substances, due in particular to their high degree of unity.

Kathrin Koslicki is Professor and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Epistemology and Metaphysics in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Alberta, Canada. Her research interests in philosophy lie mainly in metaphysics, the philosophy of language and ancient Greek philosophy, particularly Aristotle. In her two books (The Structure of Objects, OUP, 2008; and Form, Matter, Substance, OUP, 2018), she defends the Aristotelian doctrine of hylomorphism, according to which objects are compounds of matter (hulē) and form (morphē).

Die Vortragssprache ist Englisch.