ABSTRACT
In modern parlance, matter is the stuff of which bodies are made, but this is a legacy of the Scientific Revolution. Before the wide-reaching intellectual changes of the period known as the Scientific Revolution, bodies were more usually held to be made of matter and form. Matter without form was held to be inconceivable; only by being enformed could a portion of matter be said to become some definite thing. Matter and form, therefore, were an inseparable unity that together constituted a particular body. This concept of body was first developed by Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) as a response to what he saw as the excessive materialism of the atomists and the excessive idealism of Plato (ca. 428-348 B.C.E.). The atomists, according to Aristotle, neglected the role of form, while Plato neglected matter at the expense of form.
