Aristotle’s Entelechy

• Actuality and Potential

 You will be able to:

Explain the distinction between

matter and form

Explain what Aristotle means by the

soul
Potentiality v Actuality
Potentiality- this
wood COULD
become a rocking
chair if it is
turned into one

Actuality- it
has become a
lovely bed!
Aristotle's philosophy was based on his
key distinction between MATTER and
FORM:
MATTER =
The raw materials
(e.g. wood)

FORM =
Bedness
Telos = purpose/goal

The telos of the

acorn is to
become the oak
tree- the acorn
is
POTENTIALLY
an oak tree
 The form of a human would be
when we actualise our potential:
Like the
Butterfly
actualising the
potential of the
caterpillar
 Matter or Form?
stick
West highland terrier
Tree
Electricity
Paper
Sand
The Mona Lisa
Cement
A corpse
Carrot
DNA
Microwave
Paint
dust
 Matter or Form?
•stick M
•West highland terrier F
•Tree F Electricity M
•Paper F •Sand M
•The Mona Lisa F Brick F
•A corpse M • Carrot F
•DNA F Microwave F
Dust M
•Paint M
Flesh and bones are the Matter
of human organs and limbs but an
arm is not a mere heap of bones.
It is flesh and bones organised
in such a way (Form)
Soul=Form
That is why we can dismiss
as unnecessary the
question of whether the
soul and the body are one:
it as though we were to
ask whether the wax and
its shape are one
 Soul is not a special
ingredient which
breathes life into a
lifeless body; it is a
certain aspect of a
living organism. It forms
a unified whole
 Aristotle’s analogy

The relationship between

matter and form is far more
clear with artefacts as the
form is imposed by the
craftsman
 With living organisms:

• Matter and Form (Soul) are intimately

bound up with each other- a human soul,
for example requires a particular type of
matter- studying organisms gives you an
idea of what it IS to BE that thing.
 The Human Eye
The eye is
simply
matter
without
the power
of sight. It
is no
longer an
eye
 Humans
(reasoning)

Animals (sensation, eg. Pleasure)

Plants (Nutrition, growth, reproduction)

Exercising reasoning is essentially a
human actively demonstrating soul
(actuality)
 Soul

“Soul is the form of a natural body

having life potentially in it”

Soul = actuality

Soul is the nature of living things

(the inner principle of change and
rest)
 True or False?

1. Aristotle takes a rationalist approach in

observing the Universe
2. Soul is strongly connected with
actuality
3. Aristotle’s theory implies that there is life
after death
4. An embryo has actuality
 True or False?

5. Matter is potentiality
6. Aristotle would say an ant has a soul
7. Plato and Aristotle both emphasise reason
8. Aristotle would say that if you had a
frontal lobotomy which destroyed your
ability to think you would no longer be
human
At the end of the
film the main
character is given
a frontal lobotomy
in the mental
hospital- his friend
decides to
smother him with a
pillow as he is less
than human