Autor: Flanagan, Josef

Buch: Quest for Self-Knowledge

Titel: Quest for Self-Knowledge

Stichwort: Definition: Potenz, Form, Akt; Beziehungen zueinander

Kurzinhalt: Form is defined as that structural component of being to be known through a complete explanatory account of all things as those things are related to one another. Act is the third structural component, ...

Textausschnitt: 10/6 Knowing, then, is not outside being; rather, the structure of knowing corresponds to, and is intrinsic to, the structure of being. To understand and affirm the intrinsic intelligibility of being, it is imperative to understand what it means to move from a descriptive to an explanatory context, and to make that move in such a way that does not discredit descriptive knowing, but that does criticize, recenter, and reorient such descriptive contexts. The metaphysics that we are proposing is an explanatory metaphysics, whose basic terms and relations are the knowers own tripartite, structured activities of knowing, as those structured acts of knowing are oriented by, and dynamically directed to, being. (152; Fs)

11/6 Let us move on to define potency, form, and act. Potency is the structural component to be known in and through a complete intellectual patterning of all experience (the experience of all individuals, of all places and times, of all continuous processes, and of all random or nonsystematic divergencies from expected norms). Potency is to be known through a complete explanatory patterning of all experiences. Potency is not form, but it is functionally related to form. (152; Fs)


12/6 Form is defined as that structural component of being to be known through a complete explanatory account of all things as those things are related to one another. Act is the third structural component, the absolute final and unconditional element that completes and perfects the other two components. Act brings to a final realization and perfection the contribution of form and potency.1 Taken together, these three structural components form a unity since what is experienced is what is understood and what is understood is what is judged. (152; Fs)

13/6 Furthermore, all three components are defined by the term 'form.' Experience presents rather than defines, and act affirms and denies rather than determines and specifies. It is form that specifies, determines, and defines what is presented by experience, while act is also defined by the same form. As well, form is specified as a full explanation of things in their relationships to other things. Thus, potency, form, and act share a common definition, and that definition is anticipatory, or heuristic and explanatory. Furthermore, all three are defined in terms of our own structure of knowing as oriented to an ultimate, unrestricted objective. (notabene)