According to Aristotle, all objects that present themselves to us in experience appear as substances. — PessimisticIdealism
I may be an Optimistic Idealist, because I have found a way to reconcile Aristotle's Metaphysics with modern Quantum Physics, which is inherently absurd according to classical Newtonian Physics.
Matter is that which accounts for the individuality of the substance. Form accounts for a substance’s “thingness” or “kind” and is immanent in the substance as opposed to existing in a disembodied or transcendent state — PessimisticIdealism
In my Enformationism thesis, Matter is a form of Energy, and Energy is a form of Information. That statement won't make sense without an understanding of the fundamental premise of the thesis : that Quantum and Computer Science have equated Mental Information (conscious ideas) --- in its original meaning --- with Physical Information (material objects) --- in Shannon's definition, where all things in the world can be reduced down to immaterial mathematical ratios, encoded in 1s and 0s.
According to Einstein, Matter is also a form of Energy, which is the cause of all physical changes. The counter-intuitive conclusion from that duality of Information --- Physical and Metaphysical (mental), Matter & Mind --- is that everything in the world, from ideas to objects, is a form of Generic Information : mathematical ratios, mental relationships, logical proportions, X : Y :: Y : Z
If that notion is correct, then Hylomorphism is an accurate definition of physical "substance" : real Matter + ideal Form. Every physical object has a defining pattern of information : a design. So, if we take seriously Plato's theory of Ideal Forms, "primal matter" should be construed as "primal Form". And his Forms exist in an ideal state beyond space & time, just like Mind. As a metaphor, we can imagine abstract Forms as ideas in the mind of an eternal Enformer, which is indeed a "transcendent state".
It can neither exist nor be known without form. In a word, it is potency.” . . . “the principle of its action as well as of its being.” . . . “the final cause, like the efficient, is, in ultimate analysis, identical with form; it is the form of the effect, presented in intention and considered as a motive, inasmuch as by its desirability it impels the agent to act.” — PessimisticIdealism
Again, I interpret the dual nature of physical Information as both Energy & Matter, both Efficient Cause and Formal Cause. But I go beyond physical Dualism to a metaphysical Monism, which I call EnFormAction, the power to Enform, the Final Cause. It is metaphorically defined as the Potential and Intention of an ultimate Agent to act in the world. Ironically, I arrived at this Aristotelian metaphysical interpretation of Form & Substance by beginning from the paradoxical implications of Quantum Physics. The negative causation in the world is called "Entropy", so I coined the term "Enformy" to mean the creative causation of EnFormAction.
The unity of material potency and formal actuality is a substance. . . . The form is the enforming cause . . . there must be a relation holding the two terms together. . . . The question now is how substance, a unity, harmonizes the diversity of its material and formal attributes. — PessimisticIdealism
The "relation" holding energy & matter (cause & effect) together is the fundamental ratio of Zero to One (0:1), nothing to something. Which is the essence of creativity. The ultimate "form" of this relationship is what Spinoza called the Universal Substance, or God. I'm an agnostic, but the reasoning behind my thesis requires a First Cause of some kind, which I spell as "G*D" to avoid any anthro-morphic notions.
Matter has no being apart from being “enformed” by a given form, nor does the “enforming” form have any being apart from the matter which it adheres to. — PessimisticIdealism
The ultimate G*D of my thesis is defined as eternal BEING, the power to be; the power to enform; the ground of being. This is not a case of defining something into existence, but of creating an Axiom for further reasoning. This definition cannot be construed as ideally True, but only as pragmatically Useful for philosophical inquiry.
A “thing” is not identical to one of its properties; — PessimisticIdealism
Physical things are countable Quanta, while metaphysical properties are conceptual Qualia, attributions by a subjective mind onto an objective thing.
“the property of being enformed” . . . Thus, as it stands, we are doomed to suffer an infinite vicious regress, for we cannot seem to figure out how to unite matter with form. . . . surely the unity of matter and form in substance would be intelligible — PessimisticIdealism
The inevitable infinite regress of materialistic definitions of reality may be avoided only by going beyond the space-time limitations of Physics into the spaceless-timeless realm of Metaphysics. Which is the abode of G*D. By beginning from a state with no beginning and no end, we may "figure out how to unite matter with form". Which is is the problem that Enformationism was intended to resolve. Unfortunately, the essential concept, that Real is Ideal, is foreign to those of us raised with a materialistic worldview.
Nevertheless, I believe that your intuition was correct, that "surely the unity of matter and form in substance would be intelligible". The problem is how to reconcile Intuition with Reason. And I have concluded that the only way to do that is to follow Aristotle beyond the bounds of Physics into the mysterious realm of Metaphysics. Which is anathema to materialistic scientists, but is the stock-in-trade of philosophers.
Enformationism : http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page8.html
EnFormAction : http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page8.html
Enformy : http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page8.html
Enformationism Thesis : http://enformationism.info/enformationism.info/