ORIGINS OF THE PROBLEM OF UNITY OF FORM 1S5 



As Gimdissalinus in his De anima made known the unity 

 thesis of Avicenna, so it was he too who in his other treatises 

 popularized Avicebron's theory. In the De processiojie mundi -* 

 we meet with the same description of matter and form as in 

 Avicebron, whereas in the De imitate ^^ (wrongly attributed to 

 Boethius "") he reproduced almost verbatim Avicebron's teach- 

 ing on the various degrees of forms. By bringing these theories 

 to the fore, Gundissalinus contributed considerably to the 

 spread of an utterly un-Aristotelian notion of matter and form 

 which is at the base of all pluralism. Again, by proclaiming that 

 other Avicebronian tenet, that quicquid iritellectus dividit et 

 resolvit in aliquid, com'positmn est ex his in quae resolvitur, he 

 provided the pluralists with the fundamental principle on which 

 their thesis stands.^^ 



All things considered, we may unhesitatingly conclude that 

 the main sources from which medieval speculation drew the 

 philosophical problem with which we are concerned were Avi- 



quod forma animae sensibilis alia est a forma animae rationalis, et quod forma 

 animae rationalis alia est a forma intelligentiae." Ibid., IV, 3 (pp. 215-216). Cf. 

 Ill, 46 (pp. 181-2); V, 34 (p. 320). 



^* Dcs Dominicus Gundissalinus Schrift ' Von detn Hervorgange der Welt ' (De 

 processione mundi), ed. G. Biilow (B. G. P. M., XXIV, 3) Miinster, 1925, p. 30: 

 " Materia est prima substantia per se existens, substentatrix diversitatis, una 

 numero. Item, materia prima est substantia receptibilis omnium formarum." Cf. 

 Fo-ns vitae, V, 22 (p. 298) . Also loc. cit.: " Forma vero prima est substantia con- 

 stituens essentiam omnium formarum." Cf. Fans vitae, ibid. 



^^ Die dent Boethius fdlschlich zugeschriebene Abhandlung des Dominicus Gundi- 

 salvi De Unitate, ed. P. Correns (E.G. P. M., I, 1) Munster, 1891, p. 8: "Quia 

 igitur materia in supremis formata est forma intelligentiae, deinde forma rationalis 

 animae, postea vero forma sensibilis animae, deinde inferius forma animae vege- 

 tabilis, deinde forma naturae, ad ultimum autem in infimis forma corporis: hoc non 

 accidit ex diversitate virtutis agentis, sed ex aptitudine materiae suscipentis." Cf. 

 Pons vitae, V, 20 (p. 295) . 



** St. Thomas has remarked that the De unitate was wrongly attributed to 

 Boethuis: " Dicedum quod liber De unitate et uno non est Boethii, ut ipse stilus 

 indicat." De spirit, creat., a. 1 ad 21 (ed. cit., p. 18) . 



^' De processione mundi, ed. cit., p. 4; cf. Fans vitae, II, 16: " Quicquid com- 

 positorum intelligentia dividit et resolvit in aliud, est compositum ex illo in quod 

 resolvitur" (p. 51). See St. Thomas, loc. cit. Cf. Wittmann, op. cit., pp. 17-18; M. 

 de Wulf, Le traite ' De Unitate Formae ' de Gilles de Lessines (Les Philosophes 

 Beiges, I), Louvain, 1901, p. 35. 



