What this domain studies
- Matter and form in natural substances.
- The four causes and why formal and final causality matter.
- Natural powers, operations, and ends.
- Living beings as unified substances rather than mechanical aggregates.
Causes and powers
Nature
Natural beings have powers, forms, causes, operations, and ends that make them intelligible.
This domain studies nature as ordered from within. Natural things are not loose heaps of matter; they have forms, powers, operations, and ends that explain why they act in determinate ways.