This is a partially examined life episode 338 our concluding part on Aristotle's metaphysics. I think we still had a little more to do on

book 9, chapter 8, before we move on to chapter 12. What else did you want to say, Wes, about

the priority in time of the actual over the

potential of being at work over potency? I don't think we should spend a huge amount on time on

priority in time because the main part of this is priority and

substantiality but this is our made a joke about the chicken and the egg problem

and this is that problem and he wants to say that yes you might say that the seed is prior to the corn or the human being

and it's a potentiality in the sense that we all come from that.

But also the seed comes from another human being and he wants to say the fully formed thing is prior.

So in that sense, actuality is prior to potency.

And remember that for Aristotle this whole sequence of

Seed to full organism to seed to full organism that just goes on forever

Universe is infinitely extended into the past and if you really want an answer to the chicken and the egg,

paradox, the answer is the unmoved mover, which he mentions here. So you might think it's weird that he brings up the unmoved mover here, but in a way that is the only answer to the chicken and the egg question.

Is there a particular quote that we can read that actually brings in the unmoot because it's not at all obvious why

again repeating what I said in the first half why a chain of efficient causes which you know

have some material and formal stuff of course built into them of the form of

chicken causing indirectly the next chicken through the potent egg why then it would be satisfactory to say, and that whole thing gets kicked off by something

that does no kicking because the chain itself has to go on forever.

We can talk about that when we do book 12.

And the other thing he wants to say here, he calls Minos' problem a statistical quibble in my translation.

But he acknowledges that, you know, there's something important to the idea of that which is

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