The Aristotelian Proof: Premise 16
Premise 16: But
there could be such a differentiating feature only if a purely actual
actualizer had some unactualized potential, which, being purely actual, it does
not have.
Problem: Feser is
assuming (or appears to be assuming) that if a PA (purely actual being) lacks some feature, then it could
have that feature. But that is not the case for any other being. There are all
sorts of features that I lack, but are such that I could not have them. I lack
the feature of being a prime number, or of being a color, or of being incapable
of thought, or of being non-human, … But it does not follow that those are
potential features of me. None of them is a potentiality of mine. So, in
general the following is false:
For all
substances x, if x lacks some feature F, then x is potentially F.
But Feser seems to think that the above principle is true
for a purely actual being.
Question: Why?
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