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| + | #REDIRECT [[Form and Matter]] |
| − | :''This article is about the meanings of the word form connected with shape or structure. For other meanings, see [[Form (disambiguation)]].''
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| − | '''''Form''''' ([[Latin|Lat.]] ''forma'' [[English language|Eng.]] ''mould''), refers to the external [[Three-dimensional space|three-dimensional]] outline, appearance or configuration of some thing - in contrast to the matter or content or substance of which it is composed (compare with [[shape]]).
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| − | {{wiktionarypar|form}}
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| − | The word form, is a phenomenon:
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| − | Thus a [[Speech (public address)|speech]] may contain excellent [[Logical argument|arguments]] (''the matter'' may be good), whereas the [[literary genre|style]], [[grammar]], [[arrangement]] ''(the form)'' may be bad. "''Form'' is supposed to cover the [[shape]] and [[structure]] of the work; ''content'' its substance, meaning, ideas, or expressive effects." (Middleton 1999, p.141) The term, with its adjective ''formal'' and the derived nouns ''[[formality]]'' and ''[[formalism]]'', is hence sometimes contemptuously used for that which is superficial, unessential, hypocritical: chapter 23 of Matthew's [[gospel]] is a classical instance of the distinction between the formalism of the [[Pharisaic]] code and genuine religion. With this may be compared the popular phrases ''[[good form]]'' and ''bad form'' applied to behavior in society: so ''format'' (from the French) is technically used of the shape and size, e.g. of a [[book]] (octavo, quarto, etc.) or of a [[cigarette]].
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| − | The word ''form'' is also applied to certain definite objects: in printing a body of type secured in a chase for printing at one impression (''form'' or ''forme''); a bench without a back, such as is used in schools (perhaps to be compared with the French ''s'asseoir en forme'', to sit in a row); a mould or shape on or in which an object is manufactured; the lair or nest of a hare. From its use in the sense of regulated order comes the application of the term to a class in a school (''[[sixth form]]'', ''fifth form'', etc.); this sense has been explained without sufficient ground as due to the idea of all children in the same class sitting on a single form (bench).
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| − | ==Form in philosophy==<!-- This section is linked from [[Nominalism]] —>
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| − | The [[Basic Principle of Excellent Design]], often described as [[Form Follows Function]] is often thought to have arisen from [[20th century]] architectural and artistic movements in the [[United States of America]].
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| − | The word has had various usages in [[philosophy]]. It has been used to translate the Platonic ''[[idea]]'' ''(eidos)'', the permanent reality which makes a thing what it is, in contrast with the thing's particulars, which are finite and subject to change. Whether [[Plato]] understood these forms as actually existent apart from all the particular examples, or as being of the nature of immutable physical laws, is a matter of controversy. For practical purposes, [[Aristotle]] was the first to distinguish between ''[[matter]]'' ''(hyle)'' and ''form'' ''(morphe)''. To Aristotle matter is the undifferentiated primal element: it is rather that from which things develop than a thing in itself. The development of particular things from this germinal matter consists in differentiation, the acquiring of particular forms of which the knowable universe consists (cf. [[Causality|causation]] for the Aristotelian ''[[formal cause]]''). The perfection of the form of a thing is its [[entelechy]] in virtue of which it attains its fullest realization of function (De anima, ii. 2). Thus the entelechy of the [[body]] is the [[soul]]. The origin of the differentiation process is to be sought in a ''prime mover'', i.e. pure form entirely separate from all matter, eternal, unchangeable, operating not by its own activity but by the impulse which its own absolute existence excites in matter.
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| − | The Aristotelian conception of form was nominally, though perhaps in most cases unintelligently, adopted by the Scholastics, to whom, however, its origin in the observation of the physical universe was an entirely foreign idea. The most remarkable adaptation is probably that of [[Aquinas]], who distinguished the spiritual world with its ''subsistent forms'' (formae separatae) from the material with its ''inherent forms'' which exist only in combination with matter. [[Francis Bacon|Bacon]], returning to the physical standpoint, maintained that all true research must be devoted to the discovery of the real nature or essence of things. His induction searches for the true ''form'' of light, heat and so forth, analyzing the external ''form'' given in perception into simpler ''forms'' and their ''differences''. Thus he would collect all possible instances of hot things, and discover that which is present in all, excluding all those qualities which belong accidentally to one or more of the examples investigated: the ''form'' of heat is the residuum common to all. Kant transferred the term from the objective to the subjective sphere. All perception is necessarily conditioned by pure ''forms of sensibility'', i.e. [[space]] and [[time]]: whatever is perceived is perceived as having spatial and temporal relations (see [[Duration]]; [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]]). These forms are not obtained by [[abstraction]] from sensible data, nor are they strictly speaking [[innate]]: they are obtained ''by the very action of the mind from the co-ordination of its sensation''.
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| − | == See also ==
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| − | * [[Pattern]]
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| − | * [[The Forms]]
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| − | * [[Shape]]
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| − | ==References==
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| − | ''Tatarkiewicz, Władysław. A History of Six Ideas An Essay in Aesthetics. Melbourne international philosophy series, v. 5. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1980.'' ISBN 9789024722334
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| − | [[Category:Philosophy and religion]]
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| − | [[Category:Philosophy]]
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| − | {{credit|176186367}}
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