Richard Kilvington’s Theory of Hylomorphism and Qualitative Change

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present an original interpretation, first proposed by Richard Kilvington (ca. 1302--1361), of the theories of Aristotle and Averroes on hylomorphism and natural processes such as mixing and qualitative changes. These problems were widely discussed by many thinkers from the 12th to the 17th century. Some of these interpretations paved the way for modern concepts in natural philosophy. One of the thinkers who contributed to the development of these concepts was William of Ockham. As I~show in this article, Ockham also inspired Kilvington, whose concepts differ significantly from Aristotle’s.