Long, Christopher P. “The Hegemony of Form and the Resistance of Matter,” Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 21, 2 (1999): 21-46.
This article offers an interpretation of the transition that occurs in Physics A.7, in which Aristotle establishes an important new role for form in accounting for ontological identity. It then turns to Heidegger’s interpretation of Aristotle’s conception of physis in order to show the dangers, both ontological and ethical, endemic to Heidegger’s absolute affirmation of the notion of form in Aristotle. Finally, by way of Aristotle’s biological writings and Metaphysics, the article suggests that Aristotle cannot, and in fact did not, reject the important role matter has to play in establishing ontological identity.
