NOTES ON INDIVIDUATION BY MATTER UNDER DIMENSIONS

Abstract

The thesis that matter is the principle of individuation of composite substances plays a central ontological, epistemic and theological role in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. However, Aquinas deals with this problem in an unsystematic fashion, formulating various and apparently incompatible positions. This paper aims to analyze and reconstruct some elements of Aquinas’s diverging positions on this subject, identify the most relevant points concerning their differences and take a stand on which should be the best thomistic account of this kind of individuation. In order to accomplish that, this article deals with notions as prime matter, signate matter, matter under determinate and indeterminate dimensions and quantity. The conclusion is that matter under dimensions is the principle of individuation concerning nothing but the beginning of the individual’s existence and that it does not behave as an individual difference.