Thomas Aquinas Forms

Thomas Aquinas has a distinct, and unique understanding of what gives objects the form they posses. Aquinas writes about how two different things, such as “x” and “y”, can share characteristics. Through sharing traits, or forms they both take on what Aquinas calls “f-ness”. Although by definition both x and y have a make up of F, it is still a question if x is, and if y is. In Selected Philosophical Writings by Thomas Aquinas, he writes, “Because forms make things actual, forms are called actualizations, or acts” (page 68 par. 1). The forms that make things actual are categorized into substantial form, and non-essential forms. Substantial form differs from non-essential form because substantial form makes things exist as substance, whereas non-essential form exists in

These true beings are what make a thing show its form. These forms are constantly changing, and there will always be a superior form. Plato also writes about that with all the things in this world constantly changing, there has to be another reality out there with constants, and eternal. All things on earth would be perfect in their most perfect essence. What Plato talking about in a more clear example is that no form is the same form ever. A pear will always be a pear, but part of the pear-ness on this earth is that the pear will eventually decay and die. When a new pear grows and is ripe, it is not any more of a pear than the pear that has already decayed and deteriorated. With all these constant changes in the reality around Plato he did not need an organized religion to conclude the fact of a higher being, or another world. Here on Earth, there can only be one form of a pear, and that form forms all other pears. There is not a pear that exists on Earth that would be classified as perfect. All pears or any matter in this world is a copy of the form of a pear. Humans can recognize these forms from a prior existence in the world with perfect