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To: Aquinasfan
just a note on Dr. Magee's terminology: ...For Aristotle there are 10 categories into which things naturally fall. They are

* Substance, and
* Nine Accidents:
...
* Action,
* Passion,
...

I believe that it common to use the word "passion" in Aristotle scholarship with a different meaning than the modern use. I'm a little rusty on this, but here's how I think it goes in Aristotle:

A substance, by its nature, has a number of potentialities. A man has a potential to run, to think, and so on. A block of stone has a potential to become a statue. These potentialities can be realized. When a man runs, this is an "action". A running man is not a different substance from a standing man, rather it is the same substance with an "accidental" (ie not essential) modification.
Similarly, when the block of stone is carved into a statue, one of its potentials is realized. In this case, however, it is a "passion", not an "action" (think "active/passive"). In each case, the substance has changed inasmuch as a potentiality has been realized, and in each case it remains the same substance. The difference is how the change was initiated. I can't remember if Aristotle has a specific way to distinguish these two in all cases (is it an action or a passion when a man falls asleep?), but it's pretty clear to him at least that there are these two different ways that a potentiality is realized, and thus they deserve separate (if related) places in the system.
17 posted on 10/31/2001 11:08:16 AM PST by dan909
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To: dan909
That's coming in the next post. ;-)
23 posted on 10/31/2001 12:35:53 PM PST by Aquinasfan
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