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Chapter 5 - Passive Powers

from Part I - The Elements of Paradigm Instances of Efficient Causation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2022

Gloria Frost
Affiliation:
University of St Thomas, Minnesota
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Summary

Aquinas refers to that in virtue of which the patient is acted upon as passive potentiality; and he claims that to every type of active power, there corresponds a determinate type of passive power. This chapter considers Aquinas’s views on passive powers. The chapter first considers Aquinas’s views on the constituents of material substances that give rise to their passive potentialities for being acted upon. Aquinas holds that material substances have passive potentialities in virtue of both their matter and their qualitative forms. The chapter next considers Aquinas’s views on how a material substance’s passive potentialities are identified and distinguished from one another. Finally, the chapter argues that Aquinas thinks that a substance’s passive potentialities for undergoing action are the same as its potentialities for existing in determinate ways. For example, a pot of water’s potentiality for being heated is the same as its potentiality for being hot.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Passive Powers
  • Gloria Frost, University of St Thomas, Minnesota
  • Book: Aquinas on Efficient Causation and Causal Powers
  • Online publication: 11 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009225403.007
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  • Passive Powers
  • Gloria Frost, University of St Thomas, Minnesota
  • Book: Aquinas on Efficient Causation and Causal Powers
  • Online publication: 11 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009225403.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Passive Powers
  • Gloria Frost, University of St Thomas, Minnesota
  • Book: Aquinas on Efficient Causation and Causal Powers
  • Online publication: 11 November 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009225403.007
Available formats
×