Hylomorphism

Hylomorphism refers to the fact that Aristotelian form and matter are found in a pair, are only analytically distinguishable, and have no separate existence. This is utterly different from a dualism such as the Augustinian one between a separately constituted soul and body, or the Cartesian one between mind and matter. Form and matter — an active way of being and its contingent situatedness — are so deeply interwoven that one cannot be empirically picked out from the other. I think something similar applies to substance and accident. At the end of the day, the distinction is only analytical. (See also Purpose, Contingency.)