The science of the time held that life could emerge from dead matter: maggots coming out of meat being the usual example. So decaying meat could bring forth new creatures "perhaps even new species." I assume that this was the meaning. Species etiam novae, si quae apparent, praeextiterunt in quibusdam activis virtutibus, sicut et animalia ex putrefactione generata producuntur ex virtutibus stellarum et elementorum quas a principio acceperunt, etiam si novae species talium animalium producantur. (putrefactio, putrefactionis N F Later very rare rotting.)
But one may read the term more broadly to include any "corruption" because "corruptible matter" simply meant "changeable matter." So, "mutation" would also suit, even if that's not what Tom had in mind.
That seems to make sense. Kind of like Robinson Jeffers's line
The flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth.
I'm wondering about the term "changeable matter," on different grounds, though. Is it tautological? If I understand what's going on in Aristotle, the whole point of the matter/form concept is to make sense of the possibility of change. When I eat a bowl of oatmeal, the matter of the oatmeal persists, but it takes on the form of, well, me (or most of it does; some of it takes on a form of less dignity and is excreted). Matter and form are a unity; so matter always has form, and since the form can change, all matter seems to be changeable. Or does Aquinas have matter that doesn't change its form?
By 'matter' I think he included more than what modern chemists and physicists do. It's like when Einstein referred to "ponderable matter." In his view, all matter had weight. Thomas may have used the adjective as an intensive. But don't quote me.
I prepared tax returns today. I'm not sure if that counts, even though I used software, because I'm pretty sure the Internal Revenue Code is based on rhetoric, i.e. pandering.
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Species etiam novae, si quae apparent, praeextiterunt in quibusdam activis virtutibus, sicut et animalia ex putrefactione generata producuntur ex virtutibus stellarum et elementorum quas a principio acceperunt, etiam si novae species talium animalium producantur.
(putrefactio, putrefactionis N F Later very rare
rotting.)
But one may read the term more broadly to include any "corruption" because "corruptible matter" simply meant "changeable matter." So, "mutation" would also suit, even if that's not what Tom had in mind.
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The flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make earth.
I'm wondering about the term "changeable matter," on different grounds, though. Is it tautological? If I understand what's going on in Aristotle, the whole point of the matter/form concept is to make sense of the possibility of change. When I eat a bowl of oatmeal, the matter of the oatmeal persists, but it takes on the form of, well, me (or most of it does; some of it takes on a form of less dignity and is excreted). Matter and form are a unity; so matter always has form, and since the form can change, all matter seems to be changeable. Or does Aquinas have matter that doesn't change its form?
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