In this episode we look further into Aristotle's work on "First Philosophy", the Metaphysics. This is in some ways one of the most complicated and abstract of his complete works, and the inquiries go very deep into thinking and the fundamental first questions about the world.



Book/Chapter 9 of the Metaphysics, Theta, is devoted to the topic of potential and actuality - and can be used as a starting point for wide ranging reflections on practical choices in your every day life, and how to approach long term decisions and choices. Potential can both be in our nature, or be created through practice and learning. From the opening of section 5 in Book/Chapter 9:



"As all potentialities are either innate, like the senses, or come by practice, like the power of playing the flute, or by learning, like that of the arts, those which come by practice or by rational formula we must acquire by previous exercise."



The treatise of Metaphysics lies in some ways also underneath all his other work, as a ground for thinking and approach to both thinking in itself, and the application to topics.