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Full Idea
Things are broken, compressed, bent and, in a word, destroyed not by dint of having a potentiality but by dint of not having one and by missing out on something.
Gist of Idea
Things are destroyed not by their powers, but by their lack of them
Source
Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 1019a27)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.132
A Reaction
Presumably an ontology entirely based on powers would not also need to catalogue absence of powers. The positive ones do the job. No power, no destruction.
| 15777 | A 'potentiality' is a principle of change or process in a thing [Aristotle] |
| 15778 | Things are destroyed not by their powers, but by their lack of them [Aristotle] |
| 14544 | Potentialities are always for action, but are conditional on circumstances [Aristotle] |
| 15774 | We recognise potentiality from actuality [Aristotle] |
| 11254 | Matter is potentiality [Aristotle, by Politis] |
| 12250 | Bodies have act and potency, the latter explaining new kinds of existence [Oderberg] |
| 23705 | A potentiality may not be a disposition, but dispositions are strong potentialities [Vetter, by Friend/Kimpton-Nye] |
| 19009 | Potentiality does the explaining in metaphysics; we don't explain it away or reduce it [Vetter] |
| 19019 | Potentiality is the common genus of dispositions, abilities, and similar properties [Vetter] |
| 19022 | Water has a potentiality to acquire a potentiality to break (by freezing) [Vetter] |
| 19025 | Potentialities may be too weak to count as 'dispositions' [Vetter] |
| 19027 | Potentiality logic is modal system T. Stronger systems collapse iterations, and necessitate potentials [Vetter] |
| 19031 | There are potentialities 'to ...', but possibilities are 'that ....'. [Vetter] |