The History of “Hylomorphism”

The origin of the term “hylomorphism” is shrouded in mystery in spite of its being used to distinguish Aristotle and the Peripatetics from competing traditions in science and philosophy. This paper details the history of “hylomorphism” from its nineteenth-century German origins in the correspondence between Friedrich Schleiermacher and Friedrich Jacobi to its first appearance in English in 1860, to its eventual use to refer to the Peripatetic commitment to matter-form thinking. Utilizing this history, the paper specifies the obstacles the term has created for scholars and concludes with a suggestion to use “hylomorphisms” when exactness is required.