Authors/Aristotle/metaphysics/l11/c9

Chapter 9

Latin	English
Est autem hoc quidem actu solum hoc autem potentia ↵ hoc autem potentia et actu, hoc quidem ens hoc autem quantum hoc autem reliquorum. Non est autem aliquid motus praeter res; permutatur enim semper secundum entis cathegorias, commune autem in hiis nullum est quod neque in una cathegoria. Unumquodque autem dupliciter existit omnibus, ut puta quod ↵ hoc: istud quidem forma ipsius hoc autem privatio; et secundum quale hoc quidem album hoc autem nigrum, et secundum quantum hoc quidem perfectum hoc autem imperfectum, et secundum lationem hoc quidem sursum hoc autem deorsum, aut leue hoc autem grave. Quare motus et permutationis tot species quot entis.	Chapter 9. Some things are only actually, some potentially, some potentially and actually, what they are, viz. in one case a particular reality, in another, characterized by a particular quantity, or the like. There is no movement apart from things; for change is always according to the categories of being, and there is nothing common to these and in no one category. But each of the categories belongs to all its subjects in either of two ways (e.g. this-ness -for one kind of it is positive form , and the other is privation ; and as regards quality one kind is white and the other black , and as regards quantity one kind is complete and the other incomplete , and as regards spatial movement one is upwards and the other downwards , or one thing is light and another heavy ); so that there are as many kinds of movement and change as of being.
Diviso autem secundum unumquodque genus hoc quidem ↵ potentia hoc autem actu, eius quod potentia in quantum tale ƿ est actum dico motum.	There being a distinction in each class of things between the potential and the completely real, I call the actuality of the potential as such, movement.
Quod autem vera dicimus, hinc palam. cum enim edificabile in quantum tale ipsum dicimus esse actu in quantum edificatur, et est hoc edificatio. Similiter doctrina↵tio, curatio, ambulatio, saltatio, orbatio, ingrossatio. Accidit autem moveri cum fuerit actu eadem, et neque prius neque posterius; iam potentia entis, cum actu ens operetur, non in quantum ipsum sed in quantum mobile, motus est. Dico autem ‘in quantum’ sic: est enim es potentia statua; sed tamen non ↵ eris actus in quantum es motus est.	That what we say is true, is plain from the following facts. When the buildable , in so far as it is what we mean by buildable , exists actually, it is being built, and this is the process of building. Similarly with learning, healing, walking, leaping, ageing, ripening. Movement takes when the complete reality itself exists, and neither earlier nor later. The complete reality, then, of that which exists potentially, when it is completely real and actual, not qua itself, but qua movable, is movement.
Non enim idem eri esse et potentie alicui. Quoniam si idem erat simpliciter secundum rationem, erat utique eris actus motus quidam. Non est autem idem. Palam autem in contrariis; posse quidem enim sanari ↵ et posse laborare non idem (et enim si, sanari et laborare idem esset), subiectum autem et sanum et languens, sive humiditas sive sanguis, idem et unum. Quoniam autem non idem, quemadmodum neque color idem et visibile, possibilis in quantum possibile actus motus est.	By qua I mean this: bronze is potentially a statue; but yet it is not the complete reality of bronze qua bronze that is movement. For it is not the same thing to be bronze and to be a certain potency. If it were absolutely the same in its definition, the complete reality of bronze would have been a movement. But it is not the same. (This is evident in the case of contraries; for to be capable of being well and to be capable of being ill are not the same-for if they were, being well and being ill would have been the same-it is that which underlies and is healthy or diseased, whether it is moisture or blood, that is one and the same.) And since it is not. the same, as colour and the visible are not the same, it is the complete reality of the potential, and as potential, that is movement.
Quod quidem enim est hic, et quod ↵ accidit tunc moveri quando fuerit actu hic, et neque prius neque ↵ posterius, palam. Contingit enim unumquodque aliquando quidem actu esse aliquando autem non, puta edificabile in quantum edificabile; et edificabilis actus in quantum edificabile edificatio est. Aut enim hoc domus est, aut edificatio actus. Sed ↵ cum domus fuerit, non adhuc edificabile erit, edificatur autem edificabile. Necesse igitur edificationem actum esse, edificatio autem motus quidam. Eadem autem ratio et in aliis motibus.	That it is this, and that movement takes place when the complete reality itself exists, and [66a] neither earlier nor later, is evident. For each thing is capable of being sometimes actual, sometimes not, e.g. the buildable qua buildable; and the actuality of the buildable qua buildable is building. For the actuality is either this-the act of building-or the house. But when the house exists, it is no longer buildable; the buildable is what is being built. The actuality, then, must be the act of building, and this is a movement. And the same account applies to all other movements.
ƿ Quod autem bene dictum est, palam ex quibus alii dicunt de ipso, et ex eo quod non facile est diffinire aliter ipsum. Neque enim in alio aliquis genere poterit utique ponere ipsum.	That what we have said is right is evident from what all others say about movement, and from the fact that it is not easy to define it otherwise. For firstly one cannot put it in any class.
↵Palam autem ex quibus dicunt. Hii quidem alteritatem et inequalitatem et non ens,	This is evident from what people say. Some call it otherness and inequality and the unreal;
quorum nullum necesse moveri; sed neque permutatio neque in haec neque ex hiis magis quam ex oppositis.	none of these, however, is necessarily moved, and further, change is not either to these or from these any more than from their opposites.
Causa autem in haec ponendi quia infinitum aliquid videtur esse motus, alterius autem coelementationis principia ↵ quia privativa sunt indeterminata; neque enim hoc neque tale nullum ipsorum neque reliquorum predicamentorum.	The reason why people put movement in these classes is that it is thought to be something indefinite, and the principles in one of the two columns of contraries are indefinite because they are privative, for none of them is either a this or a such or in any of the other categories.
Cur autem videatur indeterminatus esse motus, causa quia neque in potentiam entium neque in actum est ponere ipsum. Neque enim possibile quantum esse movetur ex necessitate, ↵ neque quod actu quantum; motusque actus quidem esse videtur aliquis, imperfectus autem. Causa autem quia imperfectum quod possibile cuius est actus. Et propter hoc difficile ipsum sumere quid est; aut enim in privationem necesse poni aut in potentiam aut in actum simplicem, horum autem nullum videtur contingens. Quare relinquitur quod dictum est esse, et ↵ actum et non actum dictum, videre quidem difficilem contingentem autem esse.	And the reason why movement is thought to be indefinite is that it cannot be classed either with the potency of things or with their actuality; for neither that which is capable of being of a certain quantity, nor that which is actually of a certain quantity, is of necessity moved, and movement is thought to be an actuality, but incomplete; the reason is that the potential, whose actuality it is, is incomplete. And therefore it is hard to grasp what movement is; for it must be classed either under privation or under potency or under absolute actuality, but evidently none of these is possible. Therefore what remains is that it must be what we said-both actuality and the actuality we have described-which is hard to detect but capable of existing.
Et quod est motus in mobili, palam; actus enim est huius a motivo, et motivi actus non alius est.	And evidently movement is in the movable; for it is the complete realization of this by that which is capable of causing movement.
Oportet quidem enim esse actum amborum.	And the actuality of that which is capable of causing movement is no other than that of the movable. For it must be the complete reality of both.
Motivum quidem enim est ↵ in posse,	For while a thing is capable of causing movement because it can do this, it is a mover because it is active;
sed est activum mobilis. Quare similiter unus amborum actus, movens autem in operari;	but it is on the movable that it is capable of acting, so that the actuality of both is one,
quemadmodum eadem ƿ distantia unum ad duo et duo ad unum, et ascendentes et descendentes; sed esse non unum. Similiter autem et in movente et moto.	just as there is the same interval from one to two as from two to one, and as the steep ascent and the steep descent are one, but the being of them is not one; the case of the mover and the moved is similar.