Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

actuality, from ergon , function or action, etymologically associated with motion or activity; entelecheia , actualization (Greek), from enteles echein , having an end within, etymologically associated with the completion of an action or a process] Aristotle used these two terms interchangeably and ignored their different etymologies. In many places, he contrasted energeia with motion ( kinesis ) saying that motion is an incomplete activity that aims at some end beyond itself, while energeia is a complete activity which is its own end. Both energeia and entelecheia are used in contrast to potentiality for the fulfillment or realization of different kinds of potentiality. In Aristotle's discussion of substantial change, actuality or actualization is identical with form, and sometimes even with the composite of matter and form, that which has been shaped out of the matter. “The word ‘actuality’ which we connect with actualisation has in the main been extended from motion to other things; for actuality in the strict sense is thought to be identical with motion.” Aristotle, Metaphysics ... log in or subscribe to read full text