Veiled reality and hylomorphic structure

Abstract

Experimental science focuses in a peculiar, though not exclusive, way on examining the material components present in nature and their quantitative relationships. This approach has been extremely successful, even if there are gaps and perplexities to be overcome, which, by the way, are also part of the modus operandi of experimental investigation. However, if this investigation is necessary to understand the totality of nature, it is no longer sufficient, which is also corroborated by a feeling of incompleteness present in the theories. Thus, there are justifiable reasons to investigate the presence of a structure not conceptualizable only in quantitative terms called Veiled Reality by the physicist Bernard d'Espagnat, which can be assimilated to the classical transcendental composition of being and essence, provided that the latter element of the composition, essence, is equivalent to the form-matter structure, or hylomorphic structure (here, matter is to be assimilated to prime matter). Now, the existence of such a structure would reposition the philosophy of nature as complementary knowledge to that of experimental science in the sense that it would make a relevant qualitative metaphysical contribution to the search for what lies beyond the essentially quantitative, though necessary, threshold offered by the natural sciences.