58. Act, Ability, and the Nature of Evil

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Act and Ability in Different Things #

• Aristotle moves from comparing act and ability within a single thing to comparing them across different things
• Compares necessary/eternal/incorruptible things to corruptible things
• Corruptible things have the ability to be and not to be; eternal things lack this ability
• This comparison makes the superiority of act more manifest because the contrast is between two different things

Epistemological Distinction: More Knowable Simply vs. More Knowable to Us #

• What is more knowable simply: Pure act (God); knowledge of act precedes knowledge of ability
• What is more knowable to us: Things in ability; our minds proceed from ability to act
• Our knowledge always involves composition (reasoning from potential to actual)
• God and pure act are known by us only through composed, negated concepts
• This distinction is fundamental and often missed by modern philosophers (Descartes, for example)

The Transcendentals and Properties of Being #

• Six transcendentals: being, thing, one, something, true, good
• Being: Named from esse (existence); most universal; could refer even to beings of reason
• Thing (res): Named more from quidditas (what-it-is); appears in definitions
• One: Adds the notion of undividedness
• Something: Adds the notion of distinctness from all other things
• True and Good: Function as properties of being rather than synonyms; have universal scope through reason and will
• Being as such is good; the bad is fundamentally non-being

Evil as Privation, Not Being #

• Evil is lack (privatio), not positive act
• Requires three conditions: (1) a subject, (2) natural capacity for the act, (3) the act should be present
• Distinguished from simple negation: stone not seeing ≠ blindness
• The blind man lacks sight (bad); the stone lacks sight (not bad, because stone is not naturally capable)
• Even moral badness is fundamentally a lack of proper measure or order of reason
• The bad does not exist apart from things; it exists only in subjects capable of the good it lacks

Order of Priority in Being and Causality #

• Act is prior to ability in four senses: definition, being, substance (meaning perfection), and causality
• Ability is defined through act (e.g., “builder is able to build”)
• In generation, what comes later is more perfect; form (act) actualizes matter (ability)
• Ability exists for the sake of act; the end is always better than what serves it
• An ability cannot actualize itself; something already in act must actualize it

Key Arguments #

Why Act is More Perfect Than Ability #

1. Definitional Priority: Ability is known and defined through the act for which it is ability
2. Temporal Priority in Generation: What comes later in development is more perfect; act comes after ability in process
3. Teleological Priority: Ability exists for the sake of act; the end is always better than the means
4. Causal Priority: Something already in act must actualize ability; ability cannot actualize itself (contradiction)

The Argument from Necessity to the First Cause #

• Contingent things have the ability to be and not to be
• Necessary things are not able not to be
• Necessary things are better and more perfect than contingent things
• Therefore, act must be better than ability
• There must be a first cause in act (not in ability) to actualize all ability
• This first cause is God, who is pure act

The Problem of Contraries in Ability #

• Passive ability is characterized by capacity for contraries (health/sickness, motion/rest)
• The same ability underlies opposite acts
• Ability is indifferent to contraries, giving it an affinity with non-being
• Therefore, ability cannot be as good as the actualization of the good contrary
• This shows why act is necessarily better and why evil is a lack

Important Definitions #

Ability (δύναμις, potentia) #

• The capacity or power to be actualized or undergo change
• Characterized by indifference to contraries in passive ability
• Always defined through the act for which it is ability
• Prior in temporal generation but posterior in being and causality

Act (ἐνέργεια, actus) #

• The realization or actualization of ability
• The perfection of a thing
• What makes a thing actually what it is (form in material things)
• Always prior in being and causality, though later in temporal generation

Privation (στέρησις, privatio) #

• Absence of an act in a subject naturally capable of possessing it
• Distinguished from simple negation: privation is evil; negation is not
• Requires: (1) a subject, (2) natural capacity, (3) the act should be present
• The fundamental nature of evil

Transcendentals #

• The six most universal thoughts/words applicable to all beings
• Divided into three groups: (1) Causes (beginning, cause, element, nature, necessary); (2) Subject and parts (being, one, quantity, quality, substance); (3) Properties/perfections (perfect, whole, finite, infinite, limited, unlimited; true, good)
• Function structurally like the subject-properties-causes framework of all science

Examples & Illustrations #

The House Under Construction #

• Lumber and bricks are a house only in ability (potentia)
• As materials are formed and arranged, the house becomes more perfect
• The completed house (act) is better than the materials (ability)
• Shows that what comes later in generation is more perfect

The Apple Pie #

• Ingredients are a pie only in ability
• The finished pie represents the actualization of that ability
• Demonstrates the same principle as the house

Blindness vs. The Stone Not Seeing #

• The stone does not see (simple negation—not evil)
• The blind man lacks sight (privation—something evil)
• Only beings naturally capable of sight can properly be said to be blind
• Illustrates that evil requires a subject capable of the good it lacks

Distinctions Between Things #

• Man vs. beast shows the goods of the soul are better than goods of the body
• The just soul vs. the unjust soul (from Plato’s Republic)
• Easier to see distinctions when comparing different things than when analyzing one thing internally

Socrates in Plato’s Meno #

• Meno gives examples when asked what virtue is, rather than a definition
• Examples are more knowable to us; the definition is more knowable simply
• Shows the common mistake of confusing what is more knowable to us with what is more knowable simply

Einstein’s Commitment to Understanding the Universe #

• Einstein devoted his life to understanding the universe as a whole
• This assumes the universe is understandable
• An affinity exists between believing the universe is understandable and believing it is the product of a great mind
• Shows how a scientist’s implicit assumptions reflect theological commitments

Father-Son vs. Master-Slave Relationships #

• Used by Aristotle to illustrate different modes of rule
• More evident with external relations than internal divisions of soul
• Helps us understand how reason might rule emotions in different ways

Questions Addressed #

Why does Aristotle define beginning and end before defining middle? #

• To distinguish before from after
• One must understand these temporal distinctions first
• Beginning has before without after; end has after without before
• Middle has both, making it comprehensible only after the others are clarified

How can the same ability underlie contrary actualizations? #

• Passive ability is characterized by indifference to contraries
• It is one ability capable of multiple actualizations, but not simultaneously
• This indifference to contraries gives ability an affinity with non-being

What is the fundamental nature of evil? #

• Evil is privation (lack), not a positive being or act
• It requires a subject capable of the good it lacks
• It is the absence of an act that should be present
• Therefore, evil cannot exist in God, who is pure act with no passive ability

How do the transcendentals relate to metaphysical science? #

• Being and one function as the subject of wisdom
• True and good function as properties of being
• Causes (beginning, cause, element, nature, necessary) explain the subject and properties
• This parallels the structure of any reasoned knowledge

How does this metaphysical principle harmonize with knowledge of God? #

• Act is more knowable simply; God as pure act is most knowable simply
• But God is least knowable to us because our knowledge proceeds from ability to act
• We know God not as He is, but as He is not
• Yet the principle that act is better than ability prepares us for understanding God as pure act and the best thing