Marsilio Ficino’s Platonic Theology, Volume II

Ninth argument: because being belongs to it in its own right.

1What belongs to something in its own right is never separated from it. Roundness belongs to a circle by its very nature; therefore no circle is ever without roundness. Wood, however, is sometimes round, not because it is wood—for then every piece of wood would be round—but because an artisan gives it a circular figure, which is accompanied by roundness. Only then is it compelled to receive roundness. The wood ceases to be round as soon as it ceases to be circular. The wood then remains, but is no longer round. A circular figure, by contrast, is necessarily round, so that if it ceased to be round, it would also cease to be circular. In the same way heat belongs to fire in its own right, moisture to water, and light to the sun. In the same way, being too belongs to form in its own right. For whatever a thing is within a given species, it receives what it is from a proper form that brings it into that species. Since the proper being of each thing belongs to it through its proper form, it follows that being universally and without qualification belongs to the very genus of form. Form itself must therefore be called the fountain of being and must exist in its own right. But if anyone says that form exists through something else, we shall ask whether that through which form is said to exist has the nature of form or of matter. It cannot have the nature of matter, because we see that in every composite thing its proper being does not follow from matter. Thus, in the very form through which composite things exist, that through which the form itself exists cannot have the character of matter; it must have that of form. The question therefore returns to the same point: does that other form through which a form exists itself exist in its own right, or through something else? If in its own right, it is clear that form must be called the fountain of being. If through something else, we shall ask the same question as before, and the regress will proceed to infinity. Being therefore belongs to form in its own right.