The Actual Potential

"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than
him who conquers his enemies
For the hardest victory is over self."
Aristotle.
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Aristotle , when it comes to BEING , discusses
1) Actuality, whereby  something is seen in terms of perfection, realizing one exists and is and
2)Potentiality where one is imperfect, incomplete

God is seen as perfect and has no Potentiality . He IS.
God is Actual as opposed to every one else who are understood to be dual.
People consist of body and soul or Matter and Form.
To this is added Agent (efficient cause) and the End( final cause) which are reduced back to Form

.Aristotle uses a statue to show his 4 causes ( material, form, efficient and final)

The material cause, that out of which the statue is made, is the marble or bronze.

The formal cause, that according to which the statue is made, is the idea existing in the first place as exemplar in the mind of the sculptor, and in the second place as intrinsic, determining cause, embodied in the matter.

The efficient cause, or Agent, is the sculptor.

The final cause is that for the sake of which (as, for instance, the price paid the sculptor, the desire to please a patron, etc.) the statue is made. 

 Potentiality cannot exist without Actuality
Only God, who is Actual, can possess  complete reality.
 In discussing  metaphysics, Aristotle repeats Socrates' argument:

"What ever exists for a useful purpose must be the work of intelligence"

Motion is eternal but there cannot be an infinite series of movers and things moved.
There has to be one which is unmoved, to provide movement without being moved.

 So before matter and form could be composed of Actuality and Potentiality,
there must have existed a Being (of pure Actuality) whose life is self contemplative thought.

God or Actuality, imparted movement to the universe by moving the first Heaven, which emanated from the first cause which saw it as desirable.

 So the First Heaven, desireable of the Supreme being (as the soul is attracted to beauty) was set in motion
and affected the lower spheres leading to our terrestrial world.

Aristotles' theory is that God never leaves eternal repose where his blessedness consists.

Since matter, motion and time are eternal, the world is eternal and yet, it is also caused.

Today, Quantum Physics explains that before the BIG BANG there was more matter but it

evaporated and only a little was left to create what we see today.

Amazing to know that we are a part of the Actual, the eternal and are also caused because of desirability of the Supreme Being.

He is unmoved and unaffected by anything we do.

Progress in our world, changes nothing.

We cannot exist without the Actual.

If the eternal dies, then so also does the potential and cause.

Have a great Monday and hope it stops raining your end cause it hasn't in ours.

xoxoxoxoxoxoox