11. Form
All things are thought of all the time as either belonging to something or having something. A chair is thought of as a form of furniture, when it is seen as belonging to furniture. A Windsor chair is thought of as a form of chair, when it is seen as belonging to chair.
The idea of belonging, or of, is the big thing here. A circle is a form of a ball, when a circle is seen as belonging to a ball. But when we say that a ball exemplifies the circle, then the ball is a form of the circle.
If we see weather as belonging to snow, then weather is a form of snow; if we see snow as belonging to weather, snow is a form of weather. These two ideas are to be found in the phrases: “The snow is wintry” and “The winter is snowy.”
Forms can be matter. Dough can be seen as a form of bread once it is seen as belonging to bread. Bread, too, can be seen as a form of dough, if we see the bread as of the dough.
However, forms are often considered—most often—as not matter. For example, the spherical shape of a ball, or form of a ball, is, in itself, not a thing of weight, not something which in itself would impede motion. The rubber of a ball, though, is also a form of the ball; and, as rubber, it is matter. Both the sphericality and the rubber are forms of the ball.
The junction between form as an aspect of reality as a whole, and form as a term of contemporary artistic speech, is to be seen in the idea of something thought of as belonging to something else.
Suppose we take a painting of a jungle in Venezuela. The painting as a whole would be the substance, that is, the thing to which all the other things can be seen as belonging. (Substance is a thing thought of as having something belonging to it.) It is also possible, nevertheless, to see the painting as a whole as a form of art, or painting in general; and if we see the whole as depending on the details, or parts, then the whole would be a form of the details; in the same way as the existence of a room would depend on the existence of floor, ceiling, walls, and possibly windows. This means that, if need be, we can usefully and truly see all substance as form, and all form as substance. The aspect we choose is the critical, or essential thing.
Yet it is well to consider a painting as a whole as substance. There are figures in the painting of the scene in the Venezuelan jungle. These figures, in so far as they belong to the painting as a whole, are forms of the painting. The figures are in yellow and red; and yellow and red here are also forms of the painting as a whole; but besides this, they are forms of the figures, which in turn are forms.
So form in a second meaning, or subsidiary meaning, is anything not having weight, or impeding motion, seen as belonging to something.
The chief representation of this meaning in the painting I have mentioned, is shape. Shape is the way, taken by itself, a thing is in space, or meets space. The shape of a man dressed in yellow and red in a painting, can be seen as belonging to that man. In so far as it belongs to the man, it is form in the larger meaning.
The color of the painting is also something which can be regarded as belonging to the painting. Still, color as color, is not seen as having weight, for it is of surface, and surface as such is not matter. Color, then, is form in the second meaning I have mentioned.
Color as to shape is as in is to out. The color is contained by the shape. Wherever there is shape, there is likewise a situation of surface. If we imagine an oblong containing a surface, we can see the surface thought of as colorless, belonging to the shape. The surface, then, would be a form of the shape. And we can also see the shape as belonging to the surface.
Let us now think of the oblong as being colored purple and red. The surface in shape has not changed; it has not changed in size. We can see the previously colorless surface as belonging to the color, for the surface as such can be seen as of the surface with color.
Furthermore, the surface colored purple and red can be seen as belonging to the shape. This means that color can be seen as a form of shape, and shape as a form of color.
Forms can have other forms belonging to them. Form, therefore, can be substance.