ABSTRACT
This paper is an attempt to contribute to the rehabilitation of formal causality. First, it outlines the Aristotelian-Scholastic understanding of form as the principle of actuality, explaining the overlap between forms and universals. The chapter begins, unconventionally, with an explanation of formal causation by accidents. It distinguishes between the efficient causal trigger of actualisation and the continued actualisation of an object’s potentiality, which latter is accounted for by formal causality. The discussion then moves to substantial forms and formal causation by them—where accounts of formal causality traditionally begin. It is argued that the causality whereby there exists a hylemorphic compound of matter and form cannot be efficient but must be formal. This requires analysis of some aspects of matter as pure potentiality—Aristotelian prime matter. It concludes by discussing the role of form as the unifier of matter into a single substance. This activity of unification is a central element in substantial formal causality. By contrast, Travis Dumsday’s attempt to solve the unity problem without appealing to form is found wanting. The conclusion is that formal causation, far from being the relic of an outdated metaphysic, is both coherent and necessary to a proper understanding of fundamental being.
