Abstract

In the fifth chapter of book Θ of his Metaphysics Aristotle takes the view that one possesses the rational potency to do x if and only if in any situation in which all external conditions that are necessary for one's doing x are fulfilled one only needs to have the will to do x in order actually to do x in a skillful way. The modern editors of Aristotle's Metaphysics have made it unnecessarily difficult to understand this chapter, because they deleted a crucial word in a certain sen- tence rather than adding a word that appears to be missing from that sentence.