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Matter is a general term describing any physical substance, which is sometimes defined in incompatible ways in different fields of science. Some definitions are based on historical usage from a time when there was no reason to distinguish mass from simply a quantity of matter.
Stoicism and Spinoza, for example, hold monistic views, that pneuma or God, respectively, is the one substance in the world. These modes of thinking are sometimes associated with the idea of immanence. Dualism sees the world as being composed of two fundamental substances (for example, the Cartesian substance dualism of mind and matter).
Matter in the gaseous state has both variable volume and shape, adapting both to fit its container. Its particles are neither close together nor fixed in place. Matter in the plasma state has variable volume and shape, and contains neutral atoms as well as a significant number of ions and electrons, both of which can move around freely.
Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions of material things.
For example, there are countless tables in the world but the Form of tableness is at the core; it is the essence of all of them. [13] Plato's Socrates held that the world of Forms is transcendent to our own world (the world of substances) and also is the essential basis of reality. Super-ordinate to matter, Forms are the most pure of all things.
In natural language and physical science, a physical object or material object (or simply an object or body) is a contiguous collection of matter, within a defined boundary (or surface), that exists in space and time. Usually contrasted with abstract objects and mental objects. [1] [2]
A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a nearly constant volume independent of pressure. It is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, and plasma), and is the only state with a definite volume but no fixed shape.
Aristotle defines matter as "that out of which" something is made. [11] For example, letters are the matter of syllables. [12] Thus, "matter" is a relative term: [13] an object counts as matter relative to something else. For example, clay is matter relative to a brick because a brick is made of clay, whereas bricks are matter relative to a ...