The 60-Second Aquinas
Lesson
Act and Potency Part II
August 20, 1998
The idea of act and potency can be appreciated if we look at the stereotypical intelligence associated with age.
First, let me remind you that Aquinas associates intellect with act and potency with corporeal existence. Thus, "The supreme intellectual being, God, is pure act. Other intellectual substances have something of act and of potency…And the lowest among intellectual substances, that whereby man understands, has, so to speak, intellectual being only in potency" (Compendium Ch. 76)
Now, we have many sayings about age and intelligence that illustrate a connection between the two. We often refer to "wise old men" and the "innocence of a new baby." We refer to the "molding of minds," which usually refers to children, and the fact that "teenagers THINK they know everything," emphasizing that they do not.
Such sayings imply that the older you are, the more intelligent you are. The older are more experienced and thus are more closely aligned with act than with potency.
The older are also closer to death. They are closer to the end of corporeal existence, and it can be proven that man’s knowledge, which he derives from corporeal senses, is also limited by his corporeal existence.
Explanation of The 60-Second Aquinas Lesson
