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    Aristotle's account of potentiality in Metaphysics Theta ... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→Limits (termini) for capacities exist only when specific structural conditions are met

    Aristotle's account of potentiality in Metaphysics Theta allows for capacities that are context-sensitive and lack sharp boundaries, admitting of degrees without determinate termini.

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    Key Terms

    Admitting of degrees(describes how potentialities can exist)
    Coming in different amounts or levels rather than being all-or-nothing—like how temperature ranges from cold to hot instead of just being either hot or not hot.
    Aristotle
    Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher who lived over 2,000 years ago and is one of the most influential thinkers in Western history. He studied nearly every subject—from animals and plants to politics and ethics—and developed practical ways of thinking that shaped how people understand the world. His ideas on logic, nature, and how to live a good life are still taught and debated today because he focused on observing the real world rather than just abstract theories.
    Determinate termini(what Aristotle's capacities lack)
    Fixed end points or final boundaries—the idea that something has a clear stopping point or completion.
    Metaphysics Theta(the specific text being referenced)
    A specific section of Aristotle's writings (Book IX of his Metaphysics) where he discusses potentiality and actuality—what things can become versus what they already are.

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    Potentiality(Used in the Aristotelian sense; Fârâbî argues the First Being has no potentiality.)
    The capacity of a being to possess a predicate or property it does not currently possess by its essence, requiring actualization by something external that already has that property.
    Sharp boundaries(what classical semantics requires)
    Clear-cut dividing lines with no gray area; something either definitely belongs in a category or definitely doesn't, with nothing fuzzy in between.
    context-sensitive(Used to describe terms like 'I' and 'left' whose reference shifts with the context of use.)
    A term whose semantic value or referent varies depending on features of the context of utterance, such as the identity or orientation of the speaker.
    metaphysics(Hartshorne's naturalistic redefinition of metaphysics)
    On Hartshorne's view, the study not of realities beyond the physical, but of features of reality that are ubiquitous or that would exist in any possible world.

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    Modality & Possibility1 linkedDivine Attributes1 linked

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