296 Late antiquity
changedinto something else. While the physiological description of these
processes of change in terms of qualities acting on, or competing with,
each other may not be very different in either type of situation,^72 the for-
mal description in terms of a power, or powers, being realised does present a
difficulty. There seems to be an awareness of this difficulty on Galen’s part.
On the one hand, his definition of the concept of-
inOn Mixtures
book 3 contains the same normative and teleological elements as Aristotle’s
notion of potentiality:^73 it certainly is Nature’s intention that the-
will actually be realised, as Galen’s use of
0 )0 N#0
and" indicates,^74 and this seems to be the normal, natural way of
affairs; the possibility implied in the condition ‘nothing external occurring
as an impediment’ ( # 3 D) F (C ), also
derived from Aristotle’s analysis of change,^75 seems to rule out onlyexcep-
tionalcases (such as monstrosities). On the other hand, when it comes to
the powerto bring aboutchange, Galen, in his discussion of the powers of
foodstuffs and drugs, uses a slightly different concept of-
, which is
defined in the first chapter ofOn the Mixtures and Powers of Simple Drugs
as an
,^76 an ‘active cause’, and which in its turn allows of a
distinction between two stages: a stage of ‘being about to’ ( *C
)
and an actual stage (’
).^77 Thus the power of hotness (i.e. of
causing something else to becomehot) is ‘actually’ present in fire, but ‘about
to be’ present in a flint. Now, with this concept of-
, the normative
or teleological connotation is more difficult to maintain, and the condi-
tion ‘nothing external occurring as an impediment’ ( # 3 * D)
(^72) This would be along the lines that Aristotle draws inOn Coming to Be and Passing Awayand the
fourth book of theMeteorologicaand that Galen himself applies inOn Mixtures, on which see
Harig ( 1974 ) 105 ff. Galen refers to Aristotle inDe temper. 3. 3 (p. 98. 23 Helmreich, 1. 666 K.) and 3. 4
(p. 102. 16 Helmreich, 1. 672 K.)
(^73) De temper. 3. 1 (p. 86. 9 – 15 Helmreich, 1. 646 – 7 K.): ‘For we say that what is not yet such as it is
said to be, but has the nature to become like that, is present potentially... In all cases that which
each of these things is about to become, if no external factor gets in the way, this we say is already
present... Potentially in the strictest sense we call only those things where nature itself brings about
the completion (of the process), if no external factor gets in the way’K^ 1 J H # . )
$0 0 . 0 . H (! > > > ) 4 (* # 3 * D) F (*C 0 $ P N# > > > . G ! 0 ’P 8 - (% 3 3 " # 3 * D) F (n L.Cf.De temper. 1. 9 (p. 32. 17 – 19 Helmreich, 1. 560 K.); 2. 2 (p. 51. 21 – 22 Helmreich, 1. 590 K.). (^74) De temper. 3. 1 (p. 86. 18 – 19 Helmreich, 1. 647 K.): ‘What is potentially is incomplete and still about to be and as it were suited to become (what it is to be), but it is not yet (what it is to be)’K3 ’ "
.
3
0 ) ’H ^
L>
(^75) Arist.,Phys. 199 a 11 ;b 18 , 26 ; 215 a 21 ; 255 b 7 .Cf.Rh. 1392 b 20 andPol. 1288 b 24.
(^76) Cf.De simpl. med. fac. 1. 1 ( 11. 380 K.); cf.On the Seed (De semine) 1. 1 (CMGv3, 1 ,p. 64. 5 De Lacy,
4. 512 K.).
(^77) De simpl. med fac. 1. 1 ( 11. 380 K.).