Note (return) — Chapter XII

1. The Material Cause (τὴν ὕλην καὶ τὸ ὑποκείµενον)--the matter and subject--that out of which a given thing has been originated. "From the analogy which this principle has to wood or stone, or any actual matter out of which a work of nature or of art is produced, the name 'material' is assigned to this class." It does not always necessarily mean "matter" in the now common use of the term, but "antecedents--that is, principles whose inherence and priority is implied in any existing thing, as, for example, the premises of a syllogism, which are the material cause of the conclusion." 719 With Aristotle there is, therefore, "matter as an object of sense," and "matter as an object of thought."