[...]... it occurred in Candy In this case Candy’s medical skill is an origin of change in Candy but considered as something else, and an origin of change like that is a capacity Then the second type of case: suppose that food goes into Candy’s mouth, Candy grows as a result, and we explain that by reference to Candy’s physiology In this case it is not true that Candy’s physiology explains Candy’s growth when... natures and capacities drawn in terms of the location of the changes they explain, and the way in which those changes are explained, is neutral on the logical structure of the changes involved We can agree that Candy’s physiology can explain only Candy’s growth, and that this brick’s weight can explain only its downward motion, and agree that the nourishing and the falling are due to nature, without... Whereas Candy’s medical skill can explain both Candy’s recovery and Merle’s recovery, Candy’s physiology could not explain Merle’s growth at all It is non-accidental that the growth explained by Candy’s physiology is Candy’s growth Here we have an origin of changes in something considered as itself, and that origin of change is a nature The core point, then, is that what fixes whether an origin of change... difficult and nuanced (An 2.5 and Burnyeat 2002) ) (ii) Attention to natures is likely to bring rapidly to the surface a distinction found in the second half of Θ6 between complete and xxxiv introduction incomplete changes (1048b18–35) The development and behaviour of animals provide a clear case of what is natural, and these involve both incomplete and complete changes For example, the natural heatings and. .. familiar capacity–change relation covers a huge range of cases There are logical distinctions that are hard to mark without appropriate terminology (§3 on ‘capable’ and ‘possible’ as translations of the Greek adjective dunaton) And there are many different types of capacity: active and passive, one way and two way, non-rational and rational, innate and acquired, those acquired by learning and those acquired... the one hand, an instance of potential being, and, on the other, the corresponding actual changes As Candy is resting, she is able to digest food and walk around; and as she awaits patients in her surgery, she is capable of healing them By contrast there are the actual digesting of food, the actual moving, and the actual treatment of patients In so far as Aristotle s discussion of active and passive... that form and actuality, and matter and potentiality, are connected, and how the unity of the actual and the potential is any more perspicuous than the unity of form and matter that it is intended to explain These two are not the only ways of connecting Θ with other books of the Metaphysics (see Frede 1994: 174–6 for discussion) For example, Θ has looser connections with the problems raised in Metaphysics. .. the relevant dunamis, and that do not entail that the agent has the relevant dunamis Therefore these instances cannot be dunaton for the agent in accordance with a dunamis Secondly, Aristotle holds that appeal to a dunamis is explanatory (Metaphysics ∆12, 1020a 1–2; Θ1, 1046a 10–11—a dunamis is an origin of change) However, if what is dunaton in accordance with a dunamis were treated as a standard modality,... form and matter to the unity of actuality and potentiality (for more detailed discussion, see §6 below) But clarifying issues concerning form and matter in terms of actuality and potentiality incurs a further cost Aristotle now has to clarify the notions of actuality and potentiality, and in ways that show how they can fulfil the dialectical task set them On this approach an important concern in Metaphysics. .. left blank INTRODUCTION 1 AN OVERVIEW OF METAPHYSICS Θ In a way it is easy to state the aim of Aristotle s Metaphysics Θ The book explores the distinction between actuality and potentiality, between being actually φ and being potentially φ, between the actual and the potential Many difficult questions about the aim of Θ remain: for example, why Aristotle should want to investigate that distinction, and . Books B and K 1 –2 arthur madigan, sj Metaphysics Books Γ, ∆,andE christopher kirwan Second edition Metaphysics Books Z and H david bostock Metaphysics Books M and N julia annas Nicomachean Ethics. adjective dunaton). And there are many different types of capacity: active and passive, one way and two way, non-rational and rational, innate and acquired, those acquired by learning and those acquired. smith Other volumes are in preparation ARISTOTLE Metaphysics Book  Translated with an Introduction and Commentary by STEPHEN MAKIN CLARENDON PRESS · OXFORD 2006 1 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford