Change

CHANGE

  • Date: January 14-16, 2025

Transition from Potency to Act

  • Represents the transition from a state of potentiality to a state of actuality.

  • After the transition (or change), a being achieves a perfection that it did not possess while in potency.

Potency (Potentiality)

  • Describes the capacity or possibility to acquire a perfection.

  • Represents the unrealized aspect of being – what is not yet actual but has the potential to be.

  • Examples:

    1. A seed has the potency to become a tree.

    2. A block of marble has the potency to become a statue.

Act (Actualization)

  • Refers to the realization or fulfillment of potential.

  • The perfection that a being currently possesses.

  • Examples:

    1. A grown tree is the actualization of the seed’s potential.

    2. A finished statue is the actualization of the marble’s potential.

Substance

  • Definition: That which exists by itself (existing independently).

  • It refers to the reality whose essence is to exist on its own, not in another subject.

  • Example: A tree is a substance because it exists independently and has its own essential nature (treeness).

Accidents

  • Definition: Characteristics or attributes that exist in another.

  • Accidents are dependent on a substance to exist and are non-essential.

  • Examples:

    1. The greenness of a tree, its height, or the rough texture of its bark are accidents.

    2. Even if a tree loses its leaves or changes color, it remains a tree (its substance).

Types of Accidents (According to Aristotle)

  1. Quantity: How much or how many (e.g., height, size).

  2. Quality: Traits or features (e.g., color, shape, roughness).

  3. Relation: Connection to something else (e.g., taller than, next to).

  4. Action: What the substance is doing (e.g., running, growing).

  5. Passion: What is being done to it (e.g., being cut, painted).

  6. Place: Where it is located.

  7. Time: When it exists.

  8. Position: Arrangement (e.g., sitting, lying down).

  9. State: Condition (e.g., clothed, armed).

TYPES OF CHANGE

  • Substantial Change

  • Accidental Change

Substantial Change

  • A change in the very essence of a substance, resulting in the creation of a new substance.

  • Examples:

    1. Burning wood into ash (new substance: carbon).

    2. Transubstantiation: The substance of bread and wine is transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, while the accidents (appearance, taste, smell) remain unchanged.

Accidental Change

  • A change in the accidents of a substance without altering its essence.

  • Examples:

    1. A person gaining weight (same person despite weight gain).

    2. Painting a car a new color (it remains the same car).