Potentiality and Actuality of the Infinite: A Misunderstood Passage in Aristotle’s Metaphysics (Θ.6, 1048b14-17)

Phronesis 62 (2):210-225 (2017)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

InMetaphysicsΘ.6, 1048b14-17, Aristotle treats the problem of what it is for the infinite to exist potentially, i.e. to be potentially actual. According to my interpretation, Aristotle argues that to exist potentially is for the infinite to have a potentiality which cannot be actualized in reality but only in thought, because it is a potentiality the process of whose actualization cannot be brought to an end.

Categories

Keywords

Reprint years

DOI

10.1163/15685284-12341324

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 91,164

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

My notes

Similar books and articles

Aristotle and Heidegger.Nahum Brown - 2016 - Idealistic Studies 46 (2):199-214.
Ways of Being: Potentiality and Actuality in Aristotle’s Metaphysics.Charlotte Witt - 2003 - Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
The King of the Cosmos.Jeffrey D. Gower - 2011 - Epoché: A Journal for the History of Philosophy 15 (2):415-434.
The Actual Infinite as a Day or the Games.Pascal Massie - 2007 - Review of Metaphysics 60 (3):573-596.
The Modality of Sovereignty: Agamben and the Aporia of Primacy in Aristotle's Metaphysics Theta.Nahum Brown - 2013 - Mosaic.
Aristotle's Concept of Potentiality in Metaphysics Book Θ.Cao Qingyun - 2012 - Frontiers of Philosophy in China 7 (4):550-571.
A Map of Metaphysics Zeta.Myles Burnyeat - 2001 - Mathesis.
Ways of Being: Potentiality and Actuality in Aristotle’s Metaphysics.Charlotte Witt - 2003 - In . Cornell University Press.
Doing and Being: An Interpretation of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Theta.Jonathan Beere - 2009 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.
The Priority of Active Being: An Interpretation of Aristotle's "Metaphysics Theta".Jonathan Blake Beere - 2003 - Dissertation, Princeton University
Aristotle's distinction between change and activity.Mary Louise Gill - 2004 - Axiomathes 14:3-22.
The Decision about Truth .: The Relation between Physics and Metaphysics in Aristotle's Philosophy.Valentin Kalan - 2002 - Phainomena 41.
Charlotte Witt, Ways of Being: Potentiality and Actuality in Aristotle's Metaphysics Reviewed by.Christos Panayides - 2004 - Philosophy in Review 24 (4):308-310.
Aristotle, by Otfried Höffe. [REVIEW]Rosamond Kent Sprague - 2004 - Ancient Philosophy 24 (1):221-223.
Unity, identity, and explanation in Aristotle's metaphysics.Theodore Scaltsas, David Owain Maurice Charles & Mary Louise Gill (eds.) - 1994 - New York: Oxford University Press.

Analytics

Added to PP
2018-04-11

Downloads
51 (#296,600)

6 months
13 (#158,624)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Aristotle's Metaphysics. Aristotle - 1966 - Clarendon Press.
Time and Necessity: Studies in Aristotle’s Theory of Modality.Jaakko Hintikka - 1973 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 166 (2):227-227.

View all 16 references / Add more references