Metaphysical+Aspects

Metaphysical Aspects The Western way of understanding of the nature of things is based on observing change expressed in the relationship of act to potency or the comparison between what is the case and what could be the case (0339). Potency refers to what could be the reality. When some thing or act has potency that means it is capable of holding an act. Image a design for an airplane that you could fold into a piece of paper. The paper has the potential to be the airplane, so it holds your act. A hand towel does not have the potential, so it won’t hold the act. In holding the act, the paper also limits the act—your design. If your design were folded into a piece of plastic it would have different limits. Act refers to what is or is being actualized. When you acted on the piece of paper, you actualized one of its potentials. In so doing, you limit the future potentials of that piece of paper.

Aristotle notes that to actualize potential to the optimum possible requires precision. Too much can be as problematic as too little. Suppose you wanted to actualize a bottle’s potential to seal in water. The cap needs to be the correct size for the potential of the bottle to be realized. Metaphysical Aspects refer to a series of potential-actual relationships that can be used to model relationships in terms of constancy and change in any thing or act. These terms and this concept are employed in Catholic theology to help us make sense of what the Church teaches and why.

Potentials (Top Tier) 1. Matter refers to the material stuff of which a thing or act consists. Potential actualized in form. 2. Substance refers to the particular identity of a thing or an act with all of its properties. It’s //isness// in a universal sense. Potential actualized in accidents. 3. Essence refers to the particular identity of a thing or an act with all of its properties in a certain condition. It’s //isness// in a particular sense. Potential actualized in existence. Nature is a synonym for essence. What is natural is determined by the essence of the thing or act. Nature is what is common to all members of the category. //Rational soul in human beings// Not all things common to members of a category are necessarily part of their nature. //Illness or sin in human beings// Actuals (Bottom Tier) 1. Form gives identity and makes something a certain kind of thing. Form actualizes matter leading to substance. 2. Accidents are traits that cannot exist apart from a substance and are not properties of a substance. 3. Existence means to possess being. Existence actualizes essence. 4. Final End is what the act is ordered toward. Purpose is a synonym for final end.