Let
actuality be defined by one member of this antithesis, and the
potential by the other. But all things are not said in the same
sense to exist actually, but only by analogy-as A is in B or to B, C
is in D or to D; for some are as movement to potency, and the others
as substance to some sort of matter.
But also the infinite and the void and all similar things are said
to exist potentially and actually in a different sense from that which
applies to many other things, e.g. to that which sees or walks or is
seen. For of the latter class these predicates can at some time be
also truly asserted without qualification; for the seen is so called
sometimes because it is being seen, sometimes because it is capable of
being seen. But the infinite does not exist potentially in the sense
that it will ever actually have separate existence; it exists
potentially only for knowledge. For the fact that the process of
dividing never comes to an end ensures that this activity exists
potentially, but not that the infinite exists separately.
Since of the actions which have a limit none is an end but all are
relative to the end, e.g. the removing of fat, or fat-removal, and the
bodily parts themselves when one is making them thin are in movement
in this way (i.e. without being already that at which the movement
aims), this is not an action or at least not a complete one (for it is
not an end); but that movement in which the end is present is an
action. E.g. at the same time we are seeing and have seen, are
understanding and have understood, are thinking and have thought
(while it is not true that at the same time we are learning and have
learnt, or are being cured and have been cured).
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