Prima materia

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Materia Prima is the primitive formless base of all matter, according to Aristotle and the Alchemists, given particular manifestation through the influence of forms. According to the latter lead could be turned to gold by reducing it to prima materia and imposing the form of gold on it.

In the broadest terms the concept of the prima materia states that all particular substances are formed out of one and the same original substance. Considered in this way it becomes apparent that, in one form or another, this is a universal concept, possibly of an archetypal nature. The most prevalent notion of the prima materia to be found in modern thought is the atomistic theory which we inherited from the ancient Greeks. In this conception all material structures are composed of tiny building blocks of indestructible 'substance'. This substance is considered to be pure matter, and in an entirely materialistic paradigm this equates naturally to the concept of the prima materia.

As modern quantum science has begun to cast some doubt upon the veracity of the atomic theory universal field theories have arisen to take its place. In Descartes philosophy of radical doubt the prima materia is knowledge or perception (including the inner perception of ones own mind) because the existence of an objectve reality corresponding to our perceptions can never be demonstrated. In eastern cultures the mind is conceived as being the single substance out of which everything was formed. In religious cultures god and spirit perform this function. Given the variety of forms in which it appears it is uncertain whether the prevalence of this concept is founded in its objective reality or the structure of the human mind itself. Its existence is intimately linked to our need to understand the ultimate or absolute truth of our reality and to the folly of our quest for the 'theory of everything'.