Ngujo, Jerubin November 08, 2019

III – Class of Forgione

How does the experience of the motion in nature lead us to discover the fundamental structure of
being as an Act and Potency? What is the importance of theses 2 notions for any part of
philosophy?

To understand the structure of being as an Act and Potency let us understand first what is
motion. According to Aristotle, by motion, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) understands any kind of
change.1 Aristotle defines motion, by which he means change of any kind, as the actuality of a
potentiality as such (or as movable, or as a potentiality -- Physics 201a 10-11, 27-29, b 4-5).2
According to Merriam Webster dictionary, motion is an act, process, or instance of changing
place: movement. So, if there is any motion or movement, there is change.

‘Aristotle defines motion as the actuality of a potentiality, Aristotle (384-322

B.C.E.). Aristotle uses the words energeia and entelechia interchangeably to describe a
kind of action. A linguistic analysis shows that, by actuality, Aristotle means
both energeia, which means being-at-work, and entelechia, which means being-at-an-
end. These two words, although they have different meanings, function as synonyms in
Aristotle's scheme. For Aristotle, to be a thing in the world is to be at work, to belong
to a particular species, to act for an end and to form material into enduring organized
wholes. Actuality, for Aristotle, is therefore close in meaning to what it is to be alive,
except it does not carry the implication of mortality.’3

Motion according to Aristotle is the actuality of potentiality. Example of this is an egg. An

egg is a potential to become a chicken or not. Ergo, the actuality of the egg is to become a chicken.
If the egg on the example hatches, it will become a chick. It is not the actuality yet of that egg. An

1 https://www.iep.utm.edu/aris-mot/
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
act in potency to completion. Its actuality is to become a full-grown chicken. A thing or a being,
has all the potential and when it is actualized it has also a potential to become something.

‘ACT AND POTENCY (Greek ενεργεια [energeia]—δυναμις [dynamis], παθη [pathe];

Latin actus—potentia)—mutually ordered factors or components (ordered in different
orders) of one being, in which act and potency are respectively: form and matter,
substance and accidents, existence and essence, and thus that which determines and that
which is determined, that which subordinates and that which is subordinated, that which
is real and that which is possible in a concrete being.’4

Aristotle’s concept of act and potency is one of the greatest achievements of human
thought5. Thus, the conception of act and potency is the culminating and general theory of all
compositions in being, both in existence and in action, which is the manifestation of dynamism in
being.6 The importance of these two notions in any part of philosophy is that we can believe that
when there is motion there is change – motion or movement and change in any form.

Motion and change are most evident in this world. Motion is the agent that determine the
action, --i.e. changes in direction, or changes such as becoming cold or becoming brown. However,
this act is not completed yet; it is not in the state where motion ceases. An act therefore is in the
state of the further perfect of being.7

In summary, the terms ‘act’ and ‘potency’ within Aristotelian-Thomistic thought are used
to describe the fundamental metaphysical relationship known as change. If a philosopher grants
that this relationship corresponds to the way things are in the world, then he is quickly headed
towards the world-view of theism.8 So, by these example and explanation of Aristotle, it helped
others philosophers such as the famous saint, St. Thomas Aquinas in adopting the work of Aristotle
in explaining the existence of God.

4 http://www.ptta.pl/pef/haslaen/a/actpotency.pdf
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.
8 https://ses.edu/a-summary-of-act-potency/