HPhil Seminar: May 21, 2026

The HPhil (History of Philosophy) Research Group of the Centre of Philosophy of the University of Lisbon announces the 2025/26 edition of its permanent seminar on the history of philosophy, devoted to the presentation of conferences by renowned specialists while also creating opportunities to emerging scholars, aiming to promote advanced studies in groundbreaking debates and the permanent training of its academic community.

In this session of the seminar, Anna Marmodoro (Durham University) will present a paper, entitled “Is There Matter in Plato’s and Aristotle’s Metaphysics?”. (Abstract below)

The session will take place on May 21, 2026 at 5 p.m., in the Room 201.J (Room Mattos Romão, Department of Philosophy). Admission is free.

Streaming available here.

 

Abstract

Textual evidence prima facie seems to suggest that both the Late Plato (in the Timaeus) and Aristotle presuppose a sort of duality in the constitution of a material object, conceived as the combination of two different types of entity: matter and forms (i.e. properties). I identify this duality with hylomorphism as traditionally understood, and traditionally attributed to Aristotle. I argue instead that for Plato and Aristotle, there is no matter in the constitution of material objects: neither matter as physical stuff (like clay, or flesh and bones), which somehow combines with the object’s properties (e.g., the shape of a vase, or the capacities of a human being); nor matter qua ultimate substratum with no features of its own, which supposedly underlies the object’s properties and survives their change, not even in the case of radical transformations from a substance to another (e.g., when a block of marble becomes a statue, or a caterpillar becomes a butterfly). I contend that for both Plato and Aristotle, all there is to the constitutions of material objects are physical properties only, which occur in the natural world.

 

This activity is funded by Portuguese national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., within the project UID/00310/2025, Centro de Filosofia da Universidade de Lisboa (https://doi.org/10.54499/UID/00310/2025).