The doctrine of δύναμις provides the stepping stone for Aristotle’s analysis of change. The seed of a tree is potentially the mature tree. In present discussion of the notion of potentiality, I will limit myself and the reader to the argument on the potentiality in living things with a focus on man. I will concentrate the discussion on the meaning of potentiality a) as capacity, b) as a passage from potency to actuality either through art or by an innate principle, c) as έξις: A . Every sensory faculty is nothing but a faculty which exists only potentially, until the object stimulates it. Thus it acquires actuality. B . We discuss here the Megarian fallacy: A thing can act only when it is actually doing something. A man who is not building, the fallacy says, cannot build. The Megarian school not only denies potentiality but also experience. Aristotle refuses the Megarian school. My reservation about the way that Aristotle refutes the Megarian school is that if we believe that there are potentialities in men, it is not necessary to limit the potentiality in one particular craft e.g. building. If actuality is prior to potency, I dare say that passive reason is a constituent of actual knowledge, which rests in the mind in a latent condition, waiting for the active reason to come for its realization. This is the moment of contemplation, the moment when something which we consider as entirely unknown and hard for us to comprehend, suddenly becomes familiar. This is part of the unconscious work which is taking place in our mind all the time and even when we are asleep. C Έξις, according to Aristotle, has three different meanings: 1. Activity 2. disposition 3. a kind of such a disposition. The second meaning is a permanent condition or habit. Either of these is a potentiality, a capability. A formal disposition becomes potentiality for some kind of actualization. Έξις becomes second φύσις. The basic postulate of Aristotle that everywhere the fully developed is prior to the embryonic has been reversed by recent geological evidence. But for the point of view of building a theory of education this developmental view of Aristotle has a very important role. Aristotle’s doctrine of the priority of actuality leads him to deny the existence of any evil principle in the world (Meta. 1051 a 5-23), which broadens the possibilities of education.
Academy of Athens
