Potentiality, Actuality, and Quantum Mechanics

In this paper a possible interpretative value of Aristotle’s fundamental ontological doctrine of potentiality (δ ναμι ) and actuality ( ν ργεια) is considered in the context of operationally undoubtedly the most successful but interpretatively still controversial theory of modern physics – quantum mechanics – especially regarding understanding the nature of the world, the phenomena of which it describes and predicts so successfully. In particular, beings of the atomic world are interpreted as real potential beings (δυν μει ντα) actualized by the measurement process in appropriate experimental arrangement, and the problem of actual beings ( νεργε ντα) of the atomic world (better known as the measurement problem in quantum mechanics) is considered in the context of Aristotle’s threefold requirement for the priority of actuality over potentiality – in time (χρ νο ), definition or knowledge (λ γο ), and substantiality (ο σ α).