Concept
Creatio ex materia
Overview
Creatio ex materia is the notion that the universe was formed out of eternal, pre-existing matter. This is in contrast to the notion of creatio ex nihilo, where the universe is created out of nothing. The idea of creatio ex materia is found in ancient near eastern cosmology, early Greek cosmology such as is in the works of Homer and Hesiod, and across the board in ancient Greek philosophy. It was also held by a few early Christians, although creatio ex nihilo was the dominant concept among such writers. After the King Follet discourse, creatio ex materia came to be accepted in Mormonism.
Greek philosophers came to widely frame the notion of creatio ex materia with the philosophical dictum "nothing comes from nothing" (Greek: οὐδὲν ἐξ οὐδενός; Latin: ex nihilo nihil fit). Although it is not clear if the dictum goes back to Parmenides (5th century BC) or the Milesian philosophers, a more common version of the expression was coined by Lucretius, who stated in his De rerum natura that "nothing can be created out of nothing".
Alternatives to creatio ex materia include creatio ex nihilo ("creation from nothing"); creatio ex deo ("creation from God"), referring to a derivation of the cosmos from the substance of God either partially (in panentheism) or completely (in pandeism), and creatio continua (ongoing divine creation).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The comprehension of these we call knowledge; for which reason science is the binary number. But opinion is the ternary; for that rationally follows from comprehension. The objects of opinion are many things, and the ternary number denotes a multitude, as "Thrice happy Grecians"; for which reason Pythagoras admits the ternary. This sect of philosophers is called the Italic, by reason Pythagoras started his school in…
Plutarch, Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3
States what Creatio ex materia is; the author is tied to Creatio ex materia in the knowledge graph.
What I have already enumerated we are to regard as things, or the qualities or modes of things. We now come to speak of eternal truths. When we apprehend that it is impossible a thing can arise from nothing, this proposition, EX NIHILO NIHIL FIT, is not considered as somewhat existing, or as the mode of a thing, but as an eternal truth having its seat in our mind, and is called a common notion or axiom. Of this…
René Descartes, Selections from the Principles of Philosophy
States what Creatio ex materia is; the author is tied to Creatio ex materia in the knowledge graph.
According to Timæus, who was followed by Plato, that intelligent Being who formed the world endowed it with a principle of life and understanding, which extends from its centre to its remotest circumference, which is conscious of all its changes, and which governs and directs all its motions to the great end of its formation. This soul of the world was itself a God, the greatest of all the inferior, and created…
Adam Smith, The Essays of Adam Smith
States what Creatio ex materia is.
Philosophers who discussed Creatio ex materia
Related ideas
- Homer
- Philosophy
- Hesiod
- Physics (Aristotle)
- Ancient Greek philosophy
- Creatio ex nihilo
- Middle Platonism
- Matter
- Mormonism
- Eternity
- Origen
- Parmenides
- Panentheism
- Plutarch
- Ionian school (philosophy)
- De rerum natura
- Aristotle
- Universe
- Lucretius
- Epicureanism
Place in the tradition
Part of Eleatics.