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meet in the way appropriate to the potency in question, the one must act and
the other be acted on, but with the former kind of potency this is not
necessary. For the nonrational potencies are all productive of one effect each,
but the rational produce contrary effects, so that if they produced their effects
necessarily they would produce contrary effects at the same time; but this is
impossible. There must, then, be something else that decides; I mean by this,
desire or will. For whichever of two things the animal desires decisively, it
will do, when it is present, and meets the passive object, in the way
appropriate to the potency in question. Therefore everything which has a
rational potency, when it desires that for which it has a potency and in the
circumstances in which it has the potency, must do this. And it has the
potency in question when the passive object is present and is in a certain state;
if not it will not be able to act. (To add the qualification ‘if nothing external
prevents it’ is not further necessary; for it has the potency on the terms on
which this is a potency of acting, and it is this not in all circumstances but on
certain conditions, among which will be the exclusion of external hindrances;
for these are barred by some of the positive qualifications.) And so even if
one has a rational wish, or an appetite, to do two things or contrary things at
the same time, one will not do them; for it is not on these terms that one has
the potency for them, nor is it a potency of doing both at the same time, since
one will do the things which it is a potency of doing, on the terms on which
one has the potency.
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6
Since we have treated of the kind of potency which is related to movement,
let us discuss actuality-what, and what kind of thing, actuality is. For in the
course of our analysis it will also become clear, with regard to the potential,
that we not only ascribe potency to that whose nature it is to move something
else, or to be moved by something else, either without qualification or in
some particular way, but also use the word in another sense, which is the
reason of the inquiry in the course of which we have discussed these previous
senses also. Actuality, then, is the existence of a thing not in the way which
we express by ‘potentially’; we say that potentially, for instance, a statue of
Hermes is in the block of wood and the half-line is in the whole, because it
might be separated out, and we call even the man who is not studying a man
of science, if he is capable of studying; the thing that stands in contrast to
each of these exists actually. Our meaning can be seen in the particular cases
by induction, and we must not seek a definition of everything but be content
1653
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book The Complete Aristotle"
The Complete Aristotle
- Title
- The Complete Aristotle
- Author
- Aristotle
- Date
- ~322 B.C.
- Language
- English
- License
- PD
- Size
- 21.0 x 29.7 cm
- Pages
- 2328
- Keywords
- Philosophy, Antique, Philosophie, Antike, Dialogues, Metaphysik, Metaphysics, Ideologie, Ideology, Englisch
- Categories
- Geisteswissenschaften
- International
Table of contents
- Part 1; Logic (Organon) 3
- Categories 4
- On Interpretation 34
- Prior Analytics, Book I 56
- Prior Analytics, Book II 113
- Posterior Analytics, Book I 149
- Posterior Analytics, Book II 193
- Topics, Book I 218
- Topics, Book II 221
- Topics, Book III 237
- Topics, Book IV 248
- Topics, Book V 266
- Topics, Book VI 291
- Topics, Book VII 317
- Topics, Book VIII 326
- On Sophistical Refutations 348
- Part 2; Universal Physics 396
- Physics, Book I 397
- Physics, Book II 415
- Physics, Book III 432
- Physics, Book IV 449
- Physics, Book V 481
- Physics, Book VI 496
- Physics, Book VII 519
- Physics, Book VIII 533
- On the Heavens, Book I 570
- On the Heavens, Book II 599
- On the Heavens, Book III 624
- On the Heavens, Book IV 640
- On Generation and Corruption, Book I 651
- On Generation and Corruption, Book II 685
- Meteorology, Book I 707
- Meteorology, Book II 733
- Meteorology, Book III 760
- Meteorology, Book IV 773
- Part 3; Human Physics 795
- On the Soul, Book I 796
- On the Soul, Book II 815
- On the Soul, Book III 840
- On Sense and the Sensible 861
- On Memory and Reminiscence 889
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness 899
- On Dreams 909
- On Prophesying by Dreams 918
- On Longevity and the Shortness of Life 923
- On Youth, Old Age, Life and Death, and Respiration 929
- Part 4; Animal Physics 952
- The History of Animals, Book I 953
- The History of Animals, Book II translated 977
- The History of Animals, Book III 1000
- The History of Animals, Book IV 1029
- The History of Animals, Book V 1056
- The History of Animals, Book VI 1094
- The History of Animals, Book VII 1135
- The History of Animals, Book VIII 1150
- The History of Animals, Book IX 1186
- On the Parts of Animals, Book I 1234
- On the Parts of Animals, Book II 1249
- On the Parts of Animals, Book III 1281
- On the Parts of Animals, Book IV 1311
- On the Motion of Animals 1351
- On the Gait of Animals 1363
- On the Generation of Animals, Book I 1381
- On the Generation of Animals, Book II 1412
- On the Generation of Animals, Book III 1444
- On the Generation of Animals, Book IV 1469
- On the Generation of Animals, Book V 1496
- Part 5; Metaphysics 1516
- Part 6; Ethics and Politics 1748
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book I 1749
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book II 1766
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book III 1779
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IV 1799
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book V 1817
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VI 1836
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VII 1851
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII 1872
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book IX 1890
- Nicomachean Ethics, Book X 1907
- Politics, Book I 1925
- Politics, Book II 1943
- Politics, Book III 1970
- Politics, Book IV 1997
- Politics, Book V 2023
- Politics, Book VI 2053
- Politics, Book VII 2065
- Politics, Book VIII 2091
- The Athenian Constitution 2102
- Part 7; Aesthetic Writings 2156