In a sense, a thing that exists potentially does not exist, but the potential does exist. In philosophy, potentiality and actuality are a pair of closely connected principles which Aristotle used to analyze motion, causality, ethics, and physiology in his Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics and De Anima, which is about the human psyche.wikipedia On Potentiality and Actuality. Book Theta discusses potentiality and actuality, considering these concepts first in regard to process or change. The actuality of such a potentiality will be knowledge of some specific subject matter. Aristotle's Works: The … F changes into G only if some other agent, H, acts on it. Call such an actuality of a … Recent writing on the central books of Aristotle’sMetaphysicshas tended to emphasize the importance of book VII and to pay relatively little attention to book IX, which contains the only extended explanation of the distinction between potentiality and actuality in Aristotle’s works.¹ Given the centrality of the distinction to Aristotle’s thought, this scholarly neglect is puzzling. being a human being, has the first potentiality for knowledge – the capacity to learn, say, mathematical knowledge. Act and potency follows logically from Aristotle's thoughts on causation. When one thing, F, changes into another, G, we can say that F is G in potentiality, while G is G in actuality. The specification of potentiality in its different forms, its conceptual justification against the Megarians, and the wave of arguments for the priority of actuality all merge into a strong thesis: although one can never reduce potentiality in its various forms to actuality, the priority of actuality is fundamental. Aristotle describes potentiality and actuality, or potency and action, as one of several distinctions between things that exist or do not exist. A distinction is made between things existing actually and things existing potentially; a certain Actuality, also, is spoken of as a really existent entity. In Book Theta of the Metaphysics Aristotle introduces the concepts of actuality and potentiality--which were to remain central to philosophical analysis into the modern era--and explores the distinction between the actual and the potential. …. 1. In philosophy, potentiality and actuality [1] are principles of a dichotomy which Aristotle used to analyze motion, causality, ethics, and physiology in his Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics and De Anima (which is about the human psyche). We must consider what content there is in these terms. The difference between potentiality and actuality is also one of the puzzling questions raised by quantum mechanics, according to which a particle such as an electron or photon is completely described by a set of potentialities with different probabilities of being realized, until the moment of measurement, when just one of them is recognized as actual." In philosophy, potentiality and actuality are principles of a dichotomy which Aristotle used to analyze motion, causality, ethics, and physiology in his Physics, Metaphysics, Nicomachean Ethics and De Anima (which is about the human psyche). Call this ‘knowledge 1’ and the person possessing it a ‘knower 1’. [2] Aristotle's concept of actuality and potentiality is striking for two reasons; its disarming simplicity, and following that its place as a fundamental to understanding many of his other theories. Act and potency are dichotomous and parasitic in nature. That is to say, if something possess…