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Single Idea 12095

[filed under theme 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 3. Reality ]

Full Idea

Knowledge is a double thing, being both potential and actual. It is universal and indefinite and it is the potentiality of something that is universal and indefinite. But actuality is definite and of something definite, being the this-such of a this-such.

Clarification

'This-such' translates 'tode ti'

Gist of Idea

Knowledge of potential is universal and indefinite; of the actual it is definite and of individuals

Source

Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 1087a12)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.428

A Reaction

Charlotte Witt identifies this as a key idea in 'Metaphysics', since the metaphysics is built on the epistemology, and this idea justifies the claim that Aristotle gives priority to particulars. I thoroughly approve. Not all knowledge is of the universal.

The 25 ideas with the same theme [sort of reality to which realists are committed]:

221 Absolute ideas, such as the Good and the Beautiful, cannot be known by us [Plato]
6562 Plato's reality has unchanging Parmenidean forms, and Heraclitean flux [Plato, by Fogelin]
12095 Knowledge of potential is universal and indefinite; of the actual it is definite and of individuals [Aristotle]
6262 We lack some sense or other, and hence objects may have hidden features [Montaigne]
12752 Only unities have any reality [Leibniz]
21926 Schopenhauer, unlike other idealists, says reality is irrational [Schopenhauer, by Lewis,PB]
10352 The real is the idea in which the community ultimately settles down [Peirce]
22202 The World is all experiencable objects [Husserl]
5370 Space is neutral between touch and sight, so it cannot really be either of them [Russell]
22161 Readiness-to-hand defines things in themselves ontologically [Heidegger]
13934 To be 'real' is to be an element of a system, so we cannot ask reality questions about the system itself [Carnap]
17659 Reality is largely a matter of habit [Goodman]
8507 Some think of reality as made of things; I prefer facts or states of affairs [Armstrong]
12598 Reality is the overlap of true complete theories [Harman]
2329 Causal power is a good way of distinguishing the real from the unreal [Kim]
7974 Without God we faced reality: what do we face without reality? [Baudrillard]
6082 If causal power is the test for reality, that will exclude necessities and possibilities [McGinn]
1605 Reality can be viewed neutrally, or as an object of desire [Roochnik]
9211 A non-standard realism, with no privileged standpoint, might challenge its absoluteness or coherence [Fine,K]
15072 Bottom level facts are subject to time and world, middle to world but not time, and top to neither [Fine,K]
15047 What is real can only be settled in terms of 'ground' [Fine,K]
15046 Reality is a primitive metaphysical concept, which cannot be understood in other terms [Fine,K]
15048 In metaphysics, reality is regarded as either 'factual', or as 'fundamental' [Fine,K]
15060 Why should what is explanatorily basic be therefore more real? [Fine,K]
21660 Reality can be seen as the totality of facts, or as the totality of things [Hofweber]