Actuality
| Category | Philosophy |
|---|---|
| Depth | Standard |
| Article type | local Catholic reference article |
Definition
Actuality is the realised condition of something, as contrasted with what it can become or do. A person who knows a language actually possesses a skill; when speaking it, that person actually exercises the skill. Both are real, but possessing a capacity and using it are not the same actuality.
Catholic usage
Consider wood that can become a table. Before the work is done, the wood is actually wood and potentially a table. After construction, the relevant arrangement is realised. The example helps distinguish actuality from possibility; it does not mean that all natural things are artefacts assembled like furniture.
The distinction is also useful in explaining human life. Someone asleep has not ceased to be a living person or to possess intelligence merely because a particular activity is not being exercised. Actuality must be specified: actually existing, actually possessing a power and actually exercising it answer different questions.
Doctrinal context
Change is intelligible because something can be otherwise without already being otherwise in the same respect. Water may be cold and capable of becoming hot. Heating realises that capacity. If the water were already hot in the relevant respect, no transition to that condition would be needed; if it could not become hot at all, the change could not occur.
Aristotle distinguishes a process still directed towards its completion from an activity whose fulfilment is present in its exercise. Building a house and seeing a landscape illustrate the difference. Actuality therefore does not mean only physical movement or visible exertion.
Aquinas uses actuality and potency in reasoning about change and its first source. The transition from these distinctions to an unmoved mover needs further premises about causation and dependence. Recognising that change occurs is the beginning of that argument, not its entire conclusion.
Distinctions and safeguards
Actuality is not the same as moral goodness. A bad intention can actually be entertained. Nor does being actual imply having no further capacities: a real learner can develop greater knowledge. Only the special claim of pure act excludes unrealised passive potency altogether.
Must what is actual always come earlier in time?
Not in every sense. This adult was once a child, and this completed building was once unfinished. Aristotle's claim that actuality has priority concerns several kinds of priority, including explanation and the source of change. A capable builder explains the construction without implying that this particular building existed before its materials. Specify the kind of priority before drawing a conclusion.