Hyle
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2008-07-13T20:21:01Z
FlaBot
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robot Adding: [[de:Hyle]]
{{Original research|date=September 2007}}
{{Unreferenced|date=August 2006}}
{{Cleanup|date=August 2006}}
In [[philosophy]], '''hyle''' refers to [[materialism|matter]] or stuff. It can also be the [[material cause]] underlying a change in [[Aristotelian]] philosophy. The Greeks originally had no word for matter in general, as opposed to raw material suitable for some specific purpose or other, so Aristotle adapted the word for "lumber" for this purpose. The idea that everything physical is made of the same basic substance holds up well under modern [[science]], although it may be thought of more in terms of [[energy]] or matter/energy.
==Controversy==
The idea of hyle is closely related to that of [[substance theory|substance]], in that both are that which remains unchanged during any process of change. There is cause for criticism of the very postulation of its existence, for many of the reasons that [[Nietzsche]] was critical of [[Kant]]'s "Ding an sich", or "[[thing in itself]]", which is generally described as whatever is its own cause, or alternately as a thing whose only property is that it is that thing (or, in other words, that it has only that property).
There is currently no way to ''directly'' prove the existence of any thing which has no properties, since such a thing could not possibly interact with other things and thus would be unobservable and [[indeterminacy in philosophy|indeterminate]].
On the other hand, we may need to postulate a substance that [[endurantism|endures]] through [[identity and change|change]] in order to explain the nature of change -- without an enduring factor that persists through change, there is no change but only as succession of unrelated [[event (philosophy)|event]]s. (See [[hylomorphism]]). The existence of change is hard to deny, and if we have to postulate something ''unobserved'' in order to explain what ''is'' observed, that is a valid ''indirect'' demonstration (by [[abductive reasoning]]). Morevoer, something like a prime substance is posited by [[physics]] in the form of [[matter]]/[[energy]].
==See also==
* [[Aristotle]]
* [[Aristotelianism]]
* [[Hylomorphism]]
* [[Hylopathism]]
* [[Hylozoism]]
* [[Matter]]
* [[Materialism]]
* [[Noumenon]]
* [[Substance theory]]
==Sources==
* [http://www.swif.uniba.it/lei/foldop/foldoc.cgi?hyle Definition]
[[de:Hyle]]