Metaphysics: Being as Act and Potency

Since being is common to all that exists and therefore above every category, as we have shown, how do we account for the diversity and change we see in being? Diversity and change can be accounted for by a fundamental distinction within being: actuality and potentiality. Actuality is being immediately apparent to the senses: the car is parked in the driveway, the human is speaking, the bird is roosting. Potentially is being that can be become actualized: the car is potentially able to back up from the driveway, the human can potentially be quiet, the bird can potentially fly. Potentials and their actualization explain the diversity of being since different beings possess different potentials and the actualization of those potentialities vary within each of those beings. Furthermore, the actualization of potential being explains change amongst beings since for a thing to go from potential to actual just is for a thing to change from one state of being (potentiality) to another (actuality). Therefore, diversity and unity as well as change and permanence are present under the transcending reality of being.

Actual being grounds potential being, for without something actual, there cannot be something potential. Without an actually parked car, there is no potentially moving car; without an actually talking human, there is no potentially quiet human; without an actually roosting bird, there is no potentially flying bird. The asymmetry that gives priority to actual being is seen most fundamentally when we consider existence itself. Without an actual [i.e. existing] car, there is no potential for the car to park or move; without an actual human, there is no potential of the human to speak or be quiet; without an actual bird, there is no potential of the bird to fly or roost. Thus, potentiality and actuality are layered together, with actuality always supporting potentiality. 

Furthermore, potential being requires already actual being(s) to bring it to actuality. The car’s potential to move cannot be actualized without already actual things: keys, a motor, a driver; a human’s potential to be quiet cannot be actualized without actual things: an intellect and will to direct their lips and tongue or duct tape; the bird’s potential to fly cannot be actualized without actual things: healthy wings and desire to fly. Therefore, potential being can only become actual being by something that is already actual. This is known as the principle of causality. 

Finally, potentiality and actuality are divided into subcategories: first and second. First potentiality is that which is contingent, in need of receiving something to actualize some power. First actuality comes when such a power is realized, but not being exercised. Second potentiality, which is intimately tied to first actuality, is the acquisition of a power that can be exercised but is not being exercised at a given moment. Finally, second actuality is the exercising of a power at a given moment. 

For example (see visual for additional example):

• Capt. Nathan Algren’s potency for learning Japanese (first potentiality)
• Capt. Nathan Algren, having learned Japanese, is now capable of speaking it (first actuality) but is currently not (second potentiality)
• Capt. Nathan Algren is speaking Japanese to Katsumoto (second actuality) 

In sum, actuality accounts for the unity and permanence of being and potentiality accounts for the diversity and change in being. Potential being depends on actual being for its existence and actualization, creating an asymmetry between the two. Finally, there is first potentiality, which requires something in act to bring it to actuality; first actuality and second potentiality, which is actual insofar as a being has it at its disposal, but potential insofar as it is not in actual use at a given moment; and lastly second actuality, in which a being has an actual power and is exercising it.

Next in the series: The Principle of Causality & Causal Series