Abstract

SALLES, Ricardo. Capacity and Modality. A Discussion of Aristotle, Metaphysics 1047a24-29 and 1048a11-16. Nova tellus [online]. 2016, vol.34, n.1, pp.55-70. ISSN 0185-3058.  https://doi.org/10.19130/iifl.nt.2016.33.2.708.

In this paper, I examine two closely related passages from the first half of Aristotle’s Metaphysics Θ (1047a24-29 and 1048a11-16) and seek to demonstrate through them that, according to him, we may have the capacity for doing an action that happens to be impossible in a given situation. This thesis complements another equally important thesis, namely, that it may be possible for us to do an action that we are incapable of doing. The two theses evince that for Aristotle the concepts of capacity and possibility in the first five chapters of Metaphysics Θ are independent from each other. But although the latter thesis has been studied in some detail by Stephen Makin in his recent commentary on Θ, the former thesis has not received all the attention it deserves.

Keywords : Possibility; Metaphysics; action; Aristotle.

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