ARISTOTLE, HEIDEGGER, AND THE MEGARIANS

ÜNLÜ H.

REVUE ROUMAINE DE PHILOSOPHIE, cilt.64, sa.1, ss.125-139, 2020 (AHCI) identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 64 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2020
  • Dergi Adı: REVUE ROUMAINE DE PHILOSOPHIE
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Arts and Humanities Citation Index (AHCI), Scopus, Philosopher's Index
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.125-139
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: Aristotle, Heidegger, capacity, activity, potentiality, actuality
  • Hacettepe Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

This paper examines Aristotle's analysis of unenacted capacities to show the role they play in his discovery of the concept of actuality. I first argue that Aristotle begins Metaphysics IX by focusing on active and passive capacities, after which I discuss Aristotle's confrontation with the Megarians, the philosophers who maintain that a capacity is present only insofar as it is being enacted. Using Heidegger's interpretation as a guide, I show that Aristotle's rejection of the Megarian position leads him to propose that presence cannot be confined to activity. I also argue that this provides the context for Aristotle to realize that the relation between capacity and activity can be generalized as the relation between two ways of being.