Full Idea
Aporia 14: Are the elements of things potentialities and capacities for causing and generating those things or are they what actually causes and generates those things?
Gist of Idea
Aporia 14: Are ultimate causes of things potentialities, or must they be actual?
Source
report of Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 1002b32-1003a05) by Vassilis Politis - Aristotle and the Metaphysics 3.4
Book Reference
Politis,Vasilis: 'Aristotle and the Metaphysics' [Routledge 2004], p.88
A Reaction
We would now call this a question about 'dispositions', and the consensus seems to be that they are potential rather than actual, since a vase may be fragile without having to actually break.