Day 6: When Two Elements Become One

My whole world finally makes sense. The elements are more fully able to be what they are supposed to be when they blend. I know this language!

First, thank you! So many people have offered encouragement, ideas, and camaraderie this week. Spilling my rush of thoughts daily kept me going, and I am grateful that you took time to read and, for those who did, to respond.

Let me give you a summary of what I worked on now that I can.

I asked whether modern elements on the periodic table (i.e., atoms) are elements according to the classical definition of elements from Aristotle and Aquinas.

Classical Elements = CE (earth, water, air, fire)
Modern Elements = ME (periodic table)
Are MEs still CEs?

What are CEs according to Aristotle and Aquinas?

An element is that of which a thing is primarily composed, which is in that thing, and which is not divided by a form. This may be divided into three criteria:

1. An element is a prior body of prime matter and form that is the primary constituent material cause of blended bodies.

2. An element is immanent in the blended body it composes such that it persists through generation and corruption and is retrievable.

3. An element has no internal structure and no prior bodies that compose it.

How did Aquinas think these elements blend?

The four elements, earth, water, air, or fire come together in whatever proportions are determined by the composite, blended substance’s form. Substantial form requires matter that is disposed for it, and that form configures the matter into the existing subject. So, elements must blend. But how?

When they blend, they lose their substantial form and are subsumed into the whole. But they do not lose themselves; they are not corrupted. The elements are still there, as the element, but in the proportions of blending required by the form. They are changed, no longer actually in their substantial form but now part of something greater. What is brought up by the blend is their power to give and receive the unique properties that are essential to what they are. The elements are more fully able to be what they are supposed to be when they blend.

In this way, we can say that the elements that make up whatever the substantial form is are that substantial form. The elements that make up a dog are that dog. The dog is not an aggregate or agglomeration. The dog is not earth, water, air, and fire itself. The dog is the matter and form of its individuation, to which the elements, and beneath them, prime matter belongs. Matter can come and go as the dog eats and grows and carries on the functions of life, but the dog remains the dog, and any coming and going of matter is due to the dog’s form, and the matter will be disposed for that form as the form determines. Long live the dog!

Everything that exists is continually formed from formless prime matter up an ontological chain to be what it is, all continually held in existence by God.

And so, are MEs still CEs?

Yes, in a strong sense. To test, find all instances of the word “element” in the above and consider it to be an ME instead of a CE. Replace any associated language. There are 90 naturally occurring MEs, not four as with the CEs.

The only differences, as I see them, are that MEs fail to meet criteria #1 and #3 because atoms have an internal structure. The elementary particles with no known internal structure (quarks, electrons) would satisfy this criterion, but they do not satisfy criterion #2. However, if we expand the elemental landscape to allow for atoms (MEs) as elements that are rather simple bodies, as well as the elementary particles as the simplest prime matter and form composites, then we cover all the bases.

What’s so beautiful about this"?

Nature is not just building blocks. A chemical bond neither obliterates the atom nor leaves it unchanged. Even elementary particles become what they are supposed to be in relationship (if you want to call it that) with the other particles and the atom that is their immediate greater whole. Likewise, the same follows for atoms in compounds, compounds that make up everything else, up the hierarchy of inanimate matter and living things all the way to us lofty humans. Everything in nature has its place from top to bottom.

When atoms bond, blending as described by Aquinas is exactly what happens. Sodium (Na) has properties (metallic, soft, explosive in air) and chlorine (Cl) has properties (yellow green toxic gas), but those properties are nothing like the properties of table salt (NaCl). Two become one new thing. The two are still there but changed by the union to which they now belong.

This significance of this insight, I think, is that while chemistry has provided more detail about blending (bonding), the AT metaphysical framework holds.

That, and a marriage therapist can now use the periodic table as a tool.

Bonus!