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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Actus et potentia. (Discuss) |
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| Part of the series on: Corpus Aristotelicum |
| Logic (Organon): |
| Categories – Prior Analytics |
| Posterior Analytics |
| On Interpretation – Topics |
| Sophistical Refutations |
| Physics or Natural philosophy: |
| Physics – On the Heavens |
| On Generation and Corruption |
| Meteorology – On the Soul |
| History of Animals |
| Metaphysics: |
| Metaphysics |
| Ethics and Politics: |
| Nicomachean Ethics |
| Eudemian Ethics – Magna Moralia |
| On Virtues and Vices |
| Politics – Economics |
| Constitution of the Athenians |
| Rhetoric and Poetics: |
| Rhetoric – Poetics |
| Spurious Works: |
| On the Universe – Mechanics |
For the Roman Client Queen of the Bosporan Kingdom, see Dynamis (Bosporan queen).
Dunamis or dynamis (Greek δύναμις) is an Ancient Greek word meaning "power", "capability", or "force". It is the root of the English words "dynamic", "dynamite", and "dynamo". The word "dunamis" is sometimes seen untranslated in English texts because of its importance in philosophy. In Latin the word is translated as potentia which is the root of the word potential (see Aristotle's Actus et potentia).
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Philosophy
The word dunamis appears in Aristotle's works as a term for what is or has a certain potency. The word can be translated by such terms as dynamic, force, power, capacity, potential, potency, capability and faculty (ability, skill, or power). The term relates to Michel Foucault's pouvoir in French: the able-to-do. Aristotle contrasted dunamis with energeia or entelecheia. Jacques Derrida uses the term in "The Strange Institution Called Literature," where Derrida writes, "...poetry and literature have as a common feature that they suspend the 'thetic' naivety of the transcendent reading. This also accounts for the philosophical force of these experiences, a force of provocation to think phenomenality, meaning, object, even being as such, a force which is at least potential, a philosophical dunamis--which can, however, be developed only in the text like a substance" (Derrida 46).
Christianity
In Christian theology "Dunamis" is sometimes used in conjunction with the Holy Spirit.[1] It describes the activities of the Holy Spirit as believers receive Him (Acts 1:8, 10:38).
Mathematics
The word "dunamis" was mistranslated from Euclid as "power", giving the modern terminology for exponentiation.[1]
See also
Bibliography
- Energeia And Entelecheia: "Act" in Aristotle by George Alfred Blair University of Ottawa Press ISBN 978-0776603643
- Greek Philosophical Terms: A Historical Lexicon by Francis Peters NYU Press ISBN 978-0814765524
External links
References
- ^ Advanced Modern Algebra, Joseph Rotman, pg 55.
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