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Aristotle's Theory of Powers Aristotle’s Theory of Powers by Umer Shaikh A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Philosophy) in the University of Michigan 2019 Doctoral Committee: Professor Victor Caston, chair Professor Sara Abhel-Rappe Professor David Manley Professor Tad Schmaltz Umer Shaikh [email protected] ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8062-7932 © Umer Shaikh 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ....................................... v Chapter 1 Introduction ................................... 1 1.1 The Question ............................... 1 1.2 Powers and Dispositions ......................... 2 1.3 Remark on Translation and Texts .................... 3 1.4 Preliminary Answers ........................... 3 1.4.1 Powers are Efficient Causes ................... 4 1.4.2 Powers and Change ....................... 5 1.4.3 Being in Potentiality and Possibility .............. 6 1.4.4 The Foundation of Modality .................. 8 1.4.5 Possibilities from Powers .................... 9 1.4.6 Conclusion ............................ 11 1.5 Remarks About Scope of Discussion and About the Development of the δύναμις Concept ........................... 12 1.5.1 Scope ............................... 12 1.5.2 Δύναμις in Various Texts .................... 12 1.5.3 Previous Attempts to Find Consistency ............ 18 1.5.3.1 Kenny .......................... 18 1.5.3.2 Hintikka ......................... 21 1.5.4 Drawing Some Morals ..................... 22 2 Powers and Efficient Causation ......................... 24 2.1 Introduction ............................... 24 2.2 Examples of Forms Functioning as Efficient Causes .......... 29 2.2.1 Skills and Arts .......................... 29 2.2.2 Miscellaneous Other Examples ................. 35 2.2.2.1 The Rylean Passage ................... 36 2.3 Alternatives ................................ 37 2.4 Rejecting Alternatives .......................... 38 2.5 Concrete Forms ............................. 42 2.6 How an Efficient Cause Efficiently Causes ............... 47 2.7 Form Without Matter .......................... 52 2.7.1 Perception ............................ 52 ii 2.8 Two Types of Movers .......................... 55 2.9 Forms and Their Objects Are Equally Efficient Causes ........ 60 2.10 Stepping Back .............................. 69 3 Powers, Generation, and Hylomorphism ................... 72 3.1 Introduction ............................... 72 3.2 Potentiality and Actuality in Physics A.7 and A.8 ............ 73 3.3 The Solution in Terms of Matter and Form .............. 75 3.3.1 The Dilemma .......................... 75 3.4 Hylomorphism .............................. 88 3.5 The Place of Potentiality in the Picture ................. 94 3.5.1 Finding Potentiality in the Α.7 Picture ............. 94 3.5.2 Potentiality and Making Sense of the Persistence of Matter . 98 3.6 Conclusion ................................ 103 4 Being in Potentiality and Possibility ..................... 104 4.1 Introduction ............................... 104 4.1.1 Potentiality as Possibility .................... 105 4.1.2 Potentiality as Being Through Power ............. 110 4.1.3 Some More Concrete Stakes .................. 112 4.1.4 The Plan ............................. 113 4.2 Counterexamples to the Coextensionality of Potentiality and Possibility114 4.2.1 Possibility Is Not Sufficient for Potentiality .......... 114 4.2.1.1 Successive Changes ................... 114 4.2.1.2 Destruction ....................... 119 4.2.1.3 Luck ........................... 121 4.2.2 Potentiality and Parthood .................... 123 4.2.2.1 PIP Can’t Deal with Parts ................ 123 4.2.2.2 Teleological Being in Potentiality of Parts ...... 132 4.3 Conclusion ................................ 135 5 The Foundation of Aristotelian Modality .................. 137 5.1 Introduction ............................... 137 5.2 The Competition ............................. 139 5.3 Metaphysics Δ.12: Possibility Not Said in Accordance with Power .. 142 5.3.1 Introducing the Passage ..................... 142 5.3.2 Possibilities, Not Capable Things ................ 145 5.3.3 Apparent Synonymy of ἐνδέχομαι and δύναμις Words ... 148 5.3.4 Reification of Possibilities .................... 148 5.3.5 The Meaning of Claiming That Possibilities Are Not Said with Reference to Powers ....................... 148 5.3.5.1 Ross’ Reading ...................... 149 5.3.5.2 Possible States of Affairs vs. Capable Objects ..... 152 5.3.5.3 Comparison with Metaphysics Θ.1 ........... 153 5.4 Other Texts Linking Powers and Possibility .............. 159 iii 5.4.1 De Interpretatione ......................... 159 5.4.2 Direction of Explanation: Categories .............. 165 5.4.3 Physics and Aristotle’s Mechanics ................ 168 5.5 Powers and Possibilities in Metaphysics Θ.3 ............... 174 5.5.1 Aristotle Against the Megarians ................. 174 5.6 Conclusion ................................ 177 6 Getting Possibilities from Powers ....................... 178 6.1 Introduction ............................... 178 6.2 The Test for Possibility ......................... 180 6.3 Variability ................................. 183 6.4 Powers and Counterfactuals in Metaphysics Θ.5 ............ 191 6.4.1 The Conditional Relating Powers and Counterfactuals .... 191 6.4.2 Necessity Connecting Cause and Effect ............ 196 6.4.3 An Analysis of Power Possession? ............... 198 6.4.4 The Conditional as a Way to Tell What Is Possible ...... 200 6.4.5 Stacking Potentialities ...................... 201 6.5 Branching Time ............................. 205 6.6 Cotenability and Branching ....................... 207 6.7 What Kind of Modality Is This? ..................... 211 6.8 In Defense of the Principle of Plenitude ................ 213 6.8.1 Why Would Aristotle Be Tempted by the Principle of Plenitude?214 6.8.2 What Does the Principle Quantify Over? ........... 220 6.9 Grades of Modality and Essentialism .................. 223 6.9.1 Making a Distinction ...................... 225 6.9.2 Possibility Is Not Grounded in Aristotelian Essences ..... 229 7 Conclusion .................................... 231 Bibliography ..................................... 233 iv ABSTRACT This dissertation explores how causal powers connect in Aristotle’s system to Aristotelian causation, hylomorphism and the composition and nature of ma- terial objects, and possibility and necessity. I argue that active causal powers are efficient causes, explain what their causal activity consists in, and show how this is consistent with Aristotle’s alternat- ing identification of powers with form and with matter. I argue that the“way of being” that corresponds to powers, “being in potentiality,” should not be understood as being possible or as a restriction of being possible; and I offer an alternative non-modal interpretation of the way of being. Nonetheless, I argue, Aristotle thinks of powers as the foundation and explanation of modal- ity. This naturally gives rise to a conception of possibility where possibility is tied intimately to time. I finish by explaining how this conception of modal- ity relates to some of Aristotle’s notorious commitments with respect to that tie, especially his claim that every possibility is eventually realized and what is always true must be true. v CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 The Question The central characteristic of the sublunary physical world, the mundane and non- divine, according to Aristotle, is that its inhabitants perish and come to be.¹ That is, they change. And they change in a particularly philosophically puzzling way, for not only the qualities or location of this thing can change, but its very being. This is not just flux of the properties of some underlying eternal substrate. So the physical worldis one of material objects which are composite and yet substantial, real and novel unities rather than just a passing mode of the real substrate. And change, substantial and not, is ordered and systematic, not random flux or churning chaos. These are the two main large scale features of the physical world that need explain- ing: it is filled with material substances, and it is filled with change. This dissertation is focused on the second fact and the explanation Aristotle gives for it, though it turns out on my reading that Aristotle thinks the accounts for both facts have an important commonality. In both cases Aristotle leans heavily on the concept of a power. Indeed Aristotle defines power as a source for change and rest, as ἀρχὴ κινήσεως ἢ μεταβολῆς. The central question that unites this work is: what does it mean to say that a power is a source of change? The answer is: powers order the physical world insofar as it is a world of changing things subject to causation. In particular, as efficient causes, they explain the character and existence of actual changes and of which changes could happen. ¹See, e.g., Meta.Θ.8.1050b7–33; Λ.6–10, esp. 171b3–5, 1073a4–13, 23–1073b10. I will have very little to say about Aristotle’s divine. 1 1.2 Powers and Dispositions A central concern of this whole work is to say what a power really is. But it is good to have a brief sketch up front. We see, both by looking at examples and the way Aristotle characterizes powers, that they are similar to dispositions, abilities, or tendencies. That is, they are modal rather than (merely) categorical properties: saying someone is able to speak or that some wire is conductive says something about what they could or would do in non- actual
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