Être et activité selon Aristote
Being and Activity in Aristotle

Summary/Abstract: Activity is a crucial concept for fi rst philosophy because it is the last extreme principle of being. According to Aristotle the idea of activity emerges from the problem of the unity of substance. It concerns the unity of formal parts as well as the unity of matter and form. Aristotle shows that the last difference entails a way of being which is an activity proper to each substance. Then he can explain how activity is a principle of being and why activity flowing from form is prior than potentiality according to substances either in the sense of the constitution of substances or in the sense of a hierarchy of substances according to their degree of activity. The issue is an analogy of being that solves the problems of Parmenides and of Plato exposed in the dialogue of the Sophist.

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