1. Pertaining to the material or particular. 2. In bodily materiality, the condition of being marked by potency in relation to form.  In various theories of individuation, such materiality plays a fundamental role as a metaphysical principle of the being of material composites. 3. In cognition, the consideration of an object of knowledge under the aspect of its concreteness, in contrast to a formal consideration of the object.  Some scholastics distinguish these two considerations by speaking of the material object as res and the formal object at obiectum.  Thus, for example, God, who is one in res, can be formally considered as the First Cause of Motion (in natural philosophy), the First Cause of Being (in metaphysics), and as the Supernatural Deity (in supernatural theology).