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FORM (Lat. forma)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 667 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FORM (See also:Lat. forma) , in See also:general, the See also:external shape, See also:appearance, configuration of an See also:object, in contradistinction to the See also:matter of which it is composed; thus a speech may contain excellent arguments,—the matter may be See also:good, while the See also:style, See also:grammar, arrangement, the form—is See also:bad. The See also:term, with its See also:adjective " formal " and the derived nouns " formality " and " formalism," is hence contemptuously used for that which is superficial, unessential, hypocritical: See also:chap. See also:xxiii. of See also:Matthew's See also:gospel is a classical instance of the distinction between the formalism of the Pharisaic See also:code and genuine See also:religion. With this may be compared the popular phrases " good form " and " bad form " applied to behaviour in society: so " format (from the See also:French) is technically used of the shape and See also:size, e.g. of a See also:book (See also:octavo, See also:quarto, &c.) or of a cigarette. The word " form " is also applied to certain definite See also:objects: in See also:printing a See also:body of type secured in a See also:chase for printing at one impression (" form " or " forme "); a See also:bench without a back, such as is used in See also:schools (perhaps to be compared with O. Fr. s'asseoir en forme, to sit in a See also:row); a See also:mould or shape on or in which an object is manufactured; the lair or See also:nest of a See also:hare. From its use in the sense of regulated See also:order comes the application of the term to a class in a school (" See also:sixth form," " fifth form," &c.); this sense has been explained without sufficient ground as due to the See also:idea of all See also:children in the same class sitting on a single form (bench). The word has been used technically in See also:philosophy with various shades of meaning. Thus it is used to translate the Platonic L a, stbos, the permanent reality which makes a thing what it is, in contrast with the particulars which are finite and subject to See also:change. Whether See also:Plato understood these forms as actually existent apart from all the particular examples, or as being of the nature of immutable See also:physical See also:laws, is matter of discussion. For See also:practical purposes See also:Aristotle was the first to distinguish between matter (See also:urn) and form (ethos). To Aristotle matter is the undifferentiated primal See also:element: it is rather that from which things develop (u&roicEiµevov, buvaius) than a thing in itself (Evepyeia). The development of particular things from this germinal matter consists in differentiation, the acquiring of particular forms of which the knowable universe consists (cf.

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CAUSATION for the Aristotelian " formal cause "). The perfection of the form of a thing is its entelechy (Evr€XiXECa) in virtue of which it attains its fullest realization of See also:function (De anima, ii. 2, y ,/ uiv U)'¼n SWai.us TO b~ a See also:bos EvreXixeta). Thus the entelechy of the body is the soul. The origin of the differentiation See also:process is to be sought in a " See also:prime mover " (Trp&rov Kevouv), i.e. pure form entirely See also:separate (xcoprarov) from all matter, eternal, unchangeable, operating not by its own activity but by the impulse which its own See also:absolute existence excites in matter (c5s pc, vov, ob Kwovµ€vov). 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 foreignidea. The most remarkable See also:adaptation is probably that of See also:Aquinas, who distinguished the spiritual See also:world with its " subsistent forms" (formae separatae) from the material with its " inherent forms " which exist only in See also:combination with matter. See also:Bacon, returning to the physical standpoint, maintained that all true See also:research must be devoted to the See also:discovery of the real nature or essence of things. His See also:induction searches for the true " form " of See also:light, See also:heat and so forth, analysing the external " form " given in See also:perception into simpler " forms " and their " See also:differences." Thus he would collect all possible instances of hot things, and discover that which is See also: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 See also:common to all. See also:Kant transferred the term from the See also:objective to the subjective See also:sphere. All perception is necessarily conditioned by pure "forms of sensibility," i.e. space and See also:time: whatever is perceived is perceived as having See also:special and temporal relations (see SPACE AND TIME; KANT).

End of Article: FORM (Lat. forma)

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