>>Would you say literal truth is the primary sense of truth?
>>
>>I think the question is related to this one: Is energeia higher than dunamis?
One more retread on the question of energeia (actuality) vs. dynamis
(potentiality):
Aristotle would see to say that a good actuality is better than a good
potency, while a bad actuality is worse than a bad potency. Being actually
healthy, to use his example, is better than simply being potentially
healthy, while being actually ill is worse than being potentially ill.
He does say that that "things that exist potentially are discovered by being
brought to actuality. The reason is that thinking is an actuality; thus, the
potency comes from an actuality; and that is why people discover things by
constructions, even though, of course, any particular single actuality is
posterior to its potency." (Metaphysics, Book IX, 9)
If we confer superiority onto potentiality, we privilege the ideal over the
real. The truly true chair, then, would be the ideal chair, relative to
which the actual chair is merely a determined and derivative product,
something simply cut out from a pre-existing pattern, like a dress.
Aristotle, however, seems to be saying that potentiality is knowable only in
its actualized instances--what is potential can only be inferred from the
actual (and through a process that, itself, is enmeshed in the actual). In
fact, he almost sounds like a "pragmatist" above ("people discover things by
constructions").
Steve C.
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
>>
>>I think the question is related to this one: Is energeia higher than dunamis?
One more retread on the question of energeia (actuality) vs. dynamis
(potentiality):
Aristotle would see to say that a good actuality is better than a good
potency, while a bad actuality is worse than a bad potency. Being actually
healthy, to use his example, is better than simply being potentially
healthy, while being actually ill is worse than being potentially ill.
He does say that that "things that exist potentially are discovered by being
brought to actuality. The reason is that thinking is an actuality; thus, the
potency comes from an actuality; and that is why people discover things by
constructions, even though, of course, any particular single actuality is
posterior to its potency." (Metaphysics, Book IX, 9)
If we confer superiority onto potentiality, we privilege the ideal over the
real. The truly true chair, then, would be the ideal chair, relative to
which the actual chair is merely a determined and derivative product,
something simply cut out from a pre-existing pattern, like a dress.
Aristotle, however, seems to be saying that potentiality is knowable only in
its actualized instances--what is potential can only be inferred from the
actual (and through a process that, itself, is enmeshed in the actual). In
fact, he almost sounds like a "pragmatist" above ("people discover things by
constructions").
Steve C.
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---