Indeterminate Dimensions and Aquinas’s Change of Mind

Wennemann, Matthew

doi:10.5840/acpq2025813319

American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly

Volume 99, Issue 3, Summer 2025

Matthew Wennemann

Pages 389-410

https://doi.org/10.5840/acpq2025813319

Indeterminate Dimensions and Aquinas’s Change of Mind

Aquinas sometimes references “indeterminate dimensions” in his early discussions of material substances. His discussions of these dimensions are few and brief, and the notable absence of the term from his later work has left their status in his ontology a mystery and spawned a debate about whether he changed his mind. In this paper, I offer a new understanding of indeterminate dimensions, one which is coherent with Aquinas’s own words and has the advantage of explaining several puzzling features of these dimensions; then, I argue that some version of indeterminate dimensions remains a feature of his later understanding of material substances, but with a significant difference that results from a more important change of mind about the relationship between prime matter and substantial form. I conclude with a suggestion of how understanding this development in Aquinas’s thought sheds light on his mature view on individuation.

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