Essence and potentiality: Aristotelian strategies of addressing problems of change and persistence
Abstract
When Aristotle makes his case that time is a property of motion, he not only
argues that time depends for its existence on motion, but that it derives its
structural properties from motion as well. But if this is to avoid a vicious
circularity, then motion cannot presuppose time, and the order of motion must be
definable in abstraction from the order of time. I argue that Aristotle is able to do
exactly this, based upon his theory of act and potency (energeia and dunamis),
and upon the theory that all natural change is teleological. I propose that a linear
order may be defined on the phases of a change, using the relation “x is
potentially y,” where x and y range over different phases of an Aristotelian natural
substance (e.g., Socrates-as-a-boy, Socrates-as-a-man, etc.). This is possible, I
claim, because a special asymmetric potentiality is involved which marks out the
stages of a change as prior and posterior based upon their proximity to a given
goal, rather than upon their order in a temporal sequence. I also argue that if x
and y appear in states of affairs that obtain at different times, then the “x is
potentially y” relation provides a criterion for diachronic identity, since it relates a
single entity at one time to itself at another time. Moreover, I argue, based on an
account that takes forms to be individuals that persist over time, that the forms
which give substances these special potentialities are early analogues of the
individual essences proposed by the Stoics and by Duns Scotus as criteria for
identity, and by contemporary metaphysicians such as Kaplan and Plantinga to
secure identity across possible worlds. I look at two ancient puzzles about
persistence, viz., the Growing Argument by Epicharmus, and a similar puzzle
about alteration mentioned by Aristotle in Phys. 4.11, and assess the adequacy of
Aristotle’s criterion of identity for solving them. As a point of comparison, I also
assess the solution to the Growing Argument proposed by the Stoic philosopher
Chrysippus, which features a reductio ad absurdum of certain premises of these
puzzles.
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