Hylomorphism
Hylomorphism (Greek υλο- hylo-, "wood, matter" + -morphism < Greek -μορφη, morph, "form") is a philosophical concept that highlights the significance of matter in the composition of being, regarding matter to be as essential to a being as its form. In laymen's terms, hylomorphism is the view that a substance is defined by a combination of the matter from which it is made and the form which that matter takes.
Hylomorphism served as a useful tool in medieval philosophy from (at least) Avicebron to (at least) Thomas Aquinas.
Hylomorphic compounds first became prominent in philosophy in Aristotle's conception of change offered in the Physics.
What is change
Hylomorphism can be seen as the alternative of atomism as an explanation of how change happens. While the atomist theory claims that change is the rearrangement of the fundamental bricks (what changes is the form and not the matter), hylomorphism claims that what changes is the matter while the form remains invariant.
Both theories try to determine what exactly remains unchanged during processes - if nothing would remain unchanged (invariant) than one would have no order at all (the change would be 100 percent chaotic). Some, most notably Nietzsche, have flirted with the idea that reality might in fact be 100 percent chaotic and thus neither atomism and hylomorphism are necessary (Will to Power, 1066).
The most important challenge faced by hylomorphism, which Aristotle tried to solve, is the difficulty of defining the form whithout accepting the idea of fundamental bricks (atoms).
Some modern philosophers, such as Patrick Suppes in Probabilistic Metaphysics, argue that hylomorphism offers a better conceptual framework than atomism for the Standard Model of elementary particles. The Standard Model defines the form with the help of group theory and the particles (the matter) are the consequence of this order rather than the prerequisits for defining it. Thus, in a certain sense group theory is the modern version of hylomorphism.
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