Abstract

THE COMPOSITES OF MATTER AND FORM AS THE ONTIC FOUNDATION OF PLURALISM IN ARISTOTLE’S PHILOSOPHY S u m m a r y The question under consideration is an attempt to present the ontic foundations for a pluralistic interpretation of reality, the interpretation specific of Aristotle’s metaphysics. This text shows the way to understand being as substance and indicates its composite structure. The being’s composite of matter and form as subontic elements is principal in the context of ontic pluralism. It is a foundation on which to comprehend being both in the context of identity and variability. Despite the fact that the principal constitutive factor is form, it is only owing to the being’s composite of matter and form, and the specific relationship between these elements, that we can explain the ontic structure of reality. A review of the modes of being has been made with a view to matter and form (in Aritotle’s sublunary and superlunary spheres of the world). The modes of matter and form and their specific ontic character reveal the real foundations of the ontic plurality and variability in the world. There is no contradiction in the fact that the formal factor actualizes the material factor because these elements create a whole—being-substance—only in combination.