The Primal Matter and the all-pervasive impoverishment of the material world

• Main Author: Husain Agha Shiraz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Center for Religious Sciences Kom, Belgrade 2017-01-01
• Series: Kom: Časopis za Religijske Nauke
• Subjects: Primal Matter; Physical Form; Specific Form; Active Intellect; impoverishment; material world
• Online Access: https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/2334-6396/2017/2334-63961703031H.pdf

One of the most important discussions in philosophy is concerned with the Primal Matter. It is also a discussion which has existed from the very conception of philosophy. The genesis of this concept goes back to ancient Greece where philosophers used to debate the original source of the physical universe. Aristotle was of the opinion that this was nothing but the Primal Matter. The Primal Matter is a substance in which the physical form, the specific forms and the accidents of these forms exist. It is what receives these beings. It is also pure potentiality. In and of itself, it lacks actuality. However, when it accepts the forms of physical beings, it partakes of the actuality of what it receives. The Primal Matter is the termination of the Arc of Descent and the beginning of the Arc of Ascent. In a sense, this pure potentiality reflects the Necessary Being, which is a pure actuality. The Primal Matter needs form for actuality. Conversely, form needs matter for individuation and specification, which is accomplished through accidents that this matter is the recipient of. Both of these beings need the Active Intellect which is the agent of their existence. Form and matter are united with one another in the external world, according to Mulla Sadra. What is more, impoverishment is contained within the very existence of all of the beings of the material word, regardless of what they are. This is one of the greatest conclusions that the Transcendent Wisdom of Mulla Sadra was able to discover.