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material cause

material cause In this historical Aristotelian usage, material cause means the matter out of which a living creature or organized body is made.

In this historical Aristotelian usage, material cause means the matter out of which a living creature or organized body is made. Baldwin contrasts it with the formal cause, which for Aristotle was the soul as the organizing form of the body.

Also see

Sources

Drafting source: Baldwin Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, 1901. 1901 New York Macmillan original; archive index checked 2026-10-18. “Life and Organic” (Life and Organic).
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PsychTerms (psychterms.org), CC BY 4.0, version 1. “material cause.” Development preview.

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