Small error for a man

A SMALL ERROR FOR A MAN
but a giant mistake for mankind.

How do we know? Aristotle's (small) error 350 BCE.

Aristotle thought that the mind forms ideas in the following way: 

1. the mind takes the "forms" of things
2. and separates them from the "matter" of things.
   

This way of producing ideas was for him the basic process that enables us to understand the nature of things. We see the foundation for this approach in his main work, later called "Metaphysics", in chapter VII, an inquiry into the essence of things:

Aristotle (350 BCE), Metaphysics, book VII (Z), 17, 1041b.

Text in English, German and Ancient Greek:

• EN: "... one looks for that cause of the matter (but that is the form), by reason of which the matter is a what (some definite thing); but that is the essence (of the thing)."
• GE: "Man sucht also die Ursache des Stoffes (das ist aber die Form), durch die der Stoff ein Was ist; doch das ist das Wesen."
• AG: "ὥστε τὸ αἴτιον ζητεῖται τῆς ὕλης (τοῦτο δ᾽ ἐστὶ τὸ εἶδος) ᾧ τί ἐστιν: τοῦτο δ᾽ ἡ οὐσία."

This is a profound insight connecting four fundamental concepts: matter, form, thing and essence. Unfortunately Aristotle made here a small mistake: he wrote "is" where he should have written "becomes".

With this small correction, his sentence would be:

• "... one looks for that cause of the matter (but that is the form), by reason of which the matter BECOMES a what (some definite thing); but that is the essence (of the thing)."

In other words: "matter" BECOMES a definite things by means of "form"; for this reason "form" is the essence of that thing.

Why is it correct to use "becomes" instead of "is"? Because  "forms" are not there in "matter" ready to be taken. What Aristotle called "forms" are products of the mind, mental constructs. The mind "produces" forms (mental constructs) that we ADD to the "matter", like a potter modeling clay.

In this way the indefinite matter BECOMES a "what", a definite thing, an experiential thing in our experiential world.

In this way each of us lives in two worlds: the physical environment (matter) and her/his own experiential world (definite things).

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Sources:

• Aristoteles, Metaphysik. Schriften zur Ersten Philosophie. Übersetzt und herausgegeben von F. F. Schwartz, Stuttgart: Reclam, 1970.
• Oxford Classical Texts: Aristotelis: Metaphysica, Werner Jaeger (ed.). Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1957 
• http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.7.vii.html 
• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0051%3Abook%3D7%3Asection%3D1041b