The Position of Θ in Metaphysics

Theta (Θ) is the ninth book of Aristotle's Metaphysics. Aristotle devoted Θ to "potentiality and actuality".There are two views about the position of Θ in Metaphysics: First, Θ is the completion of Ζ which discusses the problem of "substance", so Θ explains or completes Ζ. Second, the problem of "potentiality and actuality" and the book Θ is independent of Ζ, so Θ pursues its own problem. The proponents of this view argue mainly on the basis of what Aristotle says at the opening of Θ as well as the structure and the content of it. In contrast the proponents of the first view focus on the structure and the content of Ζ and Η and especially emphasize on what Aristotle says at the end of Η1.In this paper I will try to defend the independence of Θ in a different way. The argument presented here is based on two points: First, what Aristotle says on the different meanings of being in Δ1 and Ε0, and second, the order of the subsequent books i.e. Ζ and Θ which accords with what Aristotle says at the end of Ε4 about the necessity of inquiring into the two meanings of being.Being qua being is divided into potential and actual. This distinction is not exclusively about substance, so the potential-actual distinction primarily can be applied to all the categories. But Aristotle holds that all the different meanings of being (being in the sense of figures of predication mentioned in Ε0) refer to one meaning, i.e. substance. So the potentiality and actuality of each category refer toAssistant professor of “Islamic Azad university” the potentiality and actuality of substance. I will try to show that this