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ABSTRACT: The discussion of Heidegger's destructive retrieve of Aristotle has been

intensified in recent years by the publication of Heidegger's courses in the ye


ars surrounding his magnum opus. Heidegger's explicit commentary on Aristotle in
these courses permits one to read Being and Time with Aristotle's Nicomachean E
thics and Metaphysics. My paper analyzes a network of differences between the tw
o thinkers, focusing on the relationship between theory and praxis. From Aristot
le to Heidegger, there is: (1) a shift from the priority of actuality to the pri
ority of possibility. This shift, I argue, is itself the metaphysical ground of:
(2) a shift from the priority of theory to the priority of praxis. This shift i
s seen most clearly in the way in which (3) Heidegger's notion of Theorie is a m
odification of his poesis. The temporal ground of the reversal is seen in (4) Hei
degger's notion of transcendence towards the world, and not towards an eternal b
eing.

I. From Aristotle's Actuality to Heidegger's Possibility


For Heidegger, possibility precedes actuality: though human beings have a factic
al structure, the way that we interpret the world is on the basis of possibility
. For Aristotle, however, actuality is prior to potentiality (Meta: 1049b 4ff).
Now Aristotle's notion of physical potentiality and what Heidegger calls possibi
lity are not identical. But nor is Aristotle's notion of potentiality limited to
the coming-to-be of form in sensible things.
In Metaphysics Theta, Aristotle distinguishes between rational potencies [dunmeis
logoi] and irrational potencies [dunmeis logoi]. Irrational potencies are those t
hat admit of only one result, thus something hot must produce heat; this is the
physical and metaphysical notion of potency, that everything tends, by nature, t
owards fulfillment of its potency. In the physical world, sensible ousa are finit
e as particulars, but the universal character of ousa, the universal form, is ete
rnal. The physical cosmos is the eternal cycle of movement from potentiality to
actuality in sensible things. In book Lambda, it is shown that this eternal move
ment is grounded formally and finally by a first mover, an eternal being, who is
fully actual. Thus actuality precedes potentiality in the physical cosmos.
The notion of rational potency is perhaps closer to what Heidegger intends by po
ssibility. Rational potencies, such as the tchnai (the poietic sciences), admit o
f contrary results: the science of medicine can produce sickness or health. The
actualization of rational potencies is determined by desire (particularly in the
case of animals) or by rational choice [rexin proaresin], though it depends on wh
ether the desire or choice is directed towards that for which we have a given ca
pacity (Cf: Meta: 1046a 36-b 9; 1047b 31-1048a 15). But desire and choice are al
so directed towards some end. Choice is the efficient explanation of action; and
the final explanation of choice is desire and reason, themselves directed to so
me end (NE:1139a 6).

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