ARISTOTLE 



Association (35) 

 of dynamis 

 with 

 "move- 

 ment." 



"Potenti- (36) 

 ally" and 

 ' in actu.'il- 

 ity." 



Erroneous (37) 

 translations 

 of dynamis. 



liv 



usually considered independently of the ones we have 

 already described, it is clear from Aristotle's own words 

 that he did not so regard it himself, for he associates 

 it very closely with Kivrjms. In Met. A 1019 a 15 ff. 

 and 1046 a 10 f., he defines the primary and funda- 

 mental sense of Swa/xis in this connexion in the following 

 words : Swa/xiy is apx^] Kivrjaecbs ij /ierajSoA^j eV irepo) rj 

 ■^ erepov : Svvafiis is a principle (or source) of Kivrjois or 

 of change — a principle either (a) subsisting in some 

 other thing than that which is to be affected by the 

 Kivrjais or change, or (6) subsisting in the thing itself qua 

 other than changeable in that respect. An example of 

 (a) is building ; an example of (h) is the science of 

 medicine in the case of a person who is being healed but 

 not qva being healed (a man doctoring himself). That 

 is the fundamental sense of this 8vVa/xis ; but Aristotle 

 goes on at once to mention the complementary sense of 

 it, which in fact is the sense in which he commonly uses 

 it, viz., the Swa/Mis of being acted upon {-Tradetv), which 

 he describes as the dpxrj in the thing acted upon of a 

 passive change caused either by some other thing or by 

 itself qita other {rj iv avru) tw Trdaxovri dpxr] (lerafioXfis 

 TTadT]Ti.KTJs vtt' dXXov r/ ■^ aAAo). 



It is therefore clear that there is the closest possible 

 connexion between this notion also of bvvap,is and Kivrj- 

 ais : Suva/xis is in fact the capacity to set up " movement" 

 or (more commonly) to be set in " movement " : it is 

 a " djnamic " conception. To say that A is B Swa/xei 

 (potentially) means that A is a Material Cause capable 

 of being set moving with a certain Kivqais by a Motive 

 Cause, which Klvrjms will result in A acquiring the Form 

 of B, thus attaining the Final Cause (becoming a B 

 itself). It is thus a conception which integrates the four 

 Causes through the process of Kivrjais. 

 The correlative of Swdfiei. {potentially) is evepyela (in 

 actimlity) ; " X evepyeia " means something in which the 

 Form X has been realized — something which already 

 possesses the Form X, and further, in the case of animals, 

 something which can reproduce the Form X in other 

 matter which is so far only " Swdixei X." 

 Of all the possible translations or mistranslations of 

 bvvafjus, " force " is one of the most misleading ; for 



