> 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.
So the history of beings is better than the History of Being?
> 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").
I can't help but feel the "dunamis over energeia" move by Heidegger was
just what he was forced to do in order to overcome metaphysics (which is
nothing other than the history of the opposite: "energeia over dunamis").
I say "forced" (not just as a pun) to indicate he had no choice in the
matter given the corner he painted himself into (by misunderstanding time
and the Nothing, among other topics). I'm thinking that it's just a
dogmatic pose he *had* to adopt as a consequence. I'm doubting its truth;
did he ever argue for it directly somewhere? Anyone?
Chris Morrissey
More C Communications Inc.
a Microsoft Solution Provider
http://www.moreC.com voice or fax 604.877.7731
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---
> (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.
So the history of beings is better than the History of Being?
> 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").
I can't help but feel the "dunamis over energeia" move by Heidegger was
just what he was forced to do in order to overcome metaphysics (which is
nothing other than the history of the opposite: "energeia over dunamis").
I say "forced" (not just as a pun) to indicate he had no choice in the
matter given the corner he painted himself into (by misunderstanding time
and the Nothing, among other topics). I'm thinking that it's just a
dogmatic pose he *had* to adopt as a consequence. I'm doubting its truth;
did he ever argue for it directly somewhere? Anyone?
Chris Morrissey
More C Communications Inc.
a Microsoft Solution Provider
http://www.moreC.com voice or fax 604.877.7731
--- from list heidegger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ---