Chapter 2 Matter as a Mirror: Marsilio Ficino and Renaissance ...

Matter as a Mirror 57
and non-being; the matter in the universe, which is already endowed with
primary forms; and already seeded matter, which will bring forth the myriad
forms. 32 In an analogous way, nature organizes matter from within, while man
is capable of shaping matter only from without and in imitation of nature’s
art. 33
Yet, as we have seen, even according to Plato himself the position
of matter within the hierarchy of being was by no means clear. Matter may
either be God’s first creation (this is the position of the Timaeus) or the lowest
element in the hierarchy of being (as in the Parmenides and in the Sophistes).
As Ficino writes: “And this very matter, which in the Parmenides is assigned
the lowest rank in the scale of things, is in the Timaeus said to be, as it were,
already created and subordinated to the architect of the world who realizes
the creation.” 34
This unresolved tension or equivocity of ideas, which is intrinsic
to Platonic philosophy in general, indicates that the abstract philosophical
discourse is inextricably bound to a metaphorical substructure. It links the
concept of matter to ideas and to specifically male anxieties about origin,
procreation, bodies, and the female aspect in creation. The discourse about
the material world refers to a gendered structure that marks a dialectical relationship
between two universal principles: male (active form) and female
(matter/potentiality). Kristeller observes that:
In the degree to which each object is composed of potency and
act, it is characterised by a passive element and an active element.
In that sense, the relation of act and potency is applicable not
only to corporeal changes but to almost all objective relations as
well, so acquiring a fundamental significance. […] The relation
between matter and form appears therefore as a particular case
of that relation, with the result that matter is called “potency,”
form on the other hand, “act.” 35
32 On this, see Allen (1989) 14; for a similar distinction of matter in its various stages
of formation see OO 492–493 (De creatione rerum).
33 Theologia IV, 1: I, 146–147; see Allen (1989) 144.
34 In Timaeum chapt. 9, OO 1441: “Hanc utique materiam in Parmenide, ab ipso
bono in ultimo rerum gradu deductam, acipit in Timeo, quasi iam genitam et architecto
mundi, ad effectum mundani operis subditam.”
35 See Kristeller (1943) 40; OO 81, 349, 386–387; Collins (1974) chapts. 1 and 4.