Staunch Transubstantiation and the Metaphysics of Middle-Sized Things

A Reply to Howard Robinson

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12775/SetF.2025.021

Keywords

transubstantiation, hylomorphism, dualism, substantial forms, accidents

Abstract

An Aristotelian natural philosophy, with its account of substantial form as the organizing and unifying principle of all substances, including living human beings, is essential to a coherent and theologically accurate formulation of the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation. I demonstrate this fact by considering a recent proposal by Howard Robinson, which attempts to re-formulate the doctrine within a Cartesian or substance dualist framework. Robinson’s proposal cannot explain the presence of the sensible qualities of the bread and wine, nor the presence of Christ’s body, blood, soul, and divinity, as requird by the Council of Trent.

References

Detlef Dürr, and Stefan Teufel. 2009. Bohmian Mechanics: The Physics and Mathematics of Quantum Theory. Germany: Springer.

Drossel, Barbara, and George Ellis. 2018. “Contextual Wavefunction Collapse: An integrated theory of quantum measurement.” New Journal of Physics 20:1113025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aaecec.

Heisenberg, Werner. 1958. Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science. London: George Allen and Unwin.

Koons, Robert C. 2017. “The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics: A Hylomorphic Critique and Alternative.” In Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science, edited by William Simpson, Robert Koons, and Nicholas Teh, 61-104. London: Routledge. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315211626.

Koons, Robert C. 2021a. “Thermal Substances: A Neo-Aristotelian Ontology for the Quantum World.” Synthese 198(2021): 2751–2772. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-019-02318-2.

Koons, Robert C. 2021b. “Powers ontology and the quantum revolution.” European Journal for Philosophy of Science 11(1): 1-28.

Koons, Robert C. 2022a. “Essential Thermochemical and Biological Powers.” In Neo-Aristotelian Metaphysics and the Theology of Nature, William M. R. Simpson, Robert C. Koons, and James Orr, 66–93. London: Routledge.

Koons, Robert C. 2022b. Is Thomas Aquinas’s Aristotelian Philosophy of Nature Obsolete? South Bend, IN: St. Augustine Press.

Pruss, Alexander R. 2017. “A Traveling Forms Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.” Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Contemporary Science, edited by William Simpson, Robert Koons, and Nicholas Teh, 95-113. London: Routledge, Chapter 4. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315211626.

Simpson, William M. R. 2023. Hylomorphism. Cambrige: Cambridge University Press.

Simpson, William M. R. 2021a. “From Quantum Physics to Classical Metaphysics.” In Neo-Aristotelian Metaphysics and the Theology of Nature, edited by William Simpson, Robert Koons, James Orr, 21-65. London: Routledge.

Simpson, William M. R. 2021b. “Cosmic Hylomorphism: a Powerist Ontology of Quantum Mechanics.” European Journal for the Philosophy of Science 11, 28.

Scientia et Fides

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Published

2025-10-31

How to Cite

1.
KOONS, Robert C. Staunch Transubstantiation and the Metaphysics of Middle-Sized Things: A Reply to Howard Robinson. Scientia et Fides. Online. 31 October 2025. Vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 181-194. [Accessed 27 December 2025]. DOI 10.12775/SetF.2025.021.

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 2 (2025): Why Middle-Sized Matters to Science and Religion

Section

Articles: Why Middle-Sized Matters to Science and Religion

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Copyright (c) 2025 Robert C. Koons

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