ynotzap
According to Scholastic Philosophy it is impossible that the same thing should be at once in actuality and potentiality in the same respect only in different respects. Potency and Act is covered in Ontology
In ontology there is no self effective and certainly no oppositional dualism. Potency and act are the same thing. The phenomena of existence is a monism. Is all one. God does not appear to be opposed to material, nor phenomenal existence, because they are the same thing.
The moment is a moving part of time not eternity, and it will continue to move in an ever changing world. The Prime Mover is infinite, not that which is moved which is finite, there is not instant in time, there is a condition of constant change in the Universe
Change is relative to a comparison of 2 or more distinct moments with the reference point being also from the relative view of what is necessarily a new moment. There is no change in the moment. The moment is all potential for change. We can’t see change in the moment. If we see change, it is first and foremost relative to our biased point of view and is second, not measurable at all and third, is not exhaustive of the moment of full time, which we cannot see in totality. Remember, any quantity, however great, divided by infinity, is zero. Zero is the change with respect to the universe. If the relative change involves all infinity, then this proves the universe is one.
Only in the conceptual world is time divided into segments, seconds, minutes, and hours, not in the objective world around us. Time in a Metaphysical sense is change, time in a conceptual world of ideas is measurable as stated, on a quantitative level, not a qualitative level So I agree with part of your statement. We do apply the principles of math and are able to give some practical measurement to change, but it will never approach perfection because in the objective world things are always changing, in the world of math, the principles do not change, there is a relationship between the unchanging principles, and the unchanging God from whom they proceed. These principles are spiritual in nature, of the intellect, just like the One they proceed from. In order that things even though they have relationships, there must be something stable and permanent in these relationships, otherwise truth becomes relative, and relationships have no stability or permanence
There is a continuity between the conceptual world and objective world around us. This is why change is not measurable but is assigned to the physical world. Because the instrument of measure exists on the same continuum of reality, our measure is unreliable. It is like saying, “What are you now thinking?” The best you can do is answer, but as soon as you answer, the moment when you had the thought is lost, and so you must use memory to recall. Your answer may exposit the moment’s thought, but you cannot be sure it answers the original question of the past moment. In your world, the concept is all detached hallucination, and the sound which triggered the conceptual response has no bearing on the formulated thought. We might as well not listen to lectures, but just write essays.
Time in the sense that it is change will continue, because it’s part of our nature even in Heaven, God will sustain the change, we will spend an eternity being filled by God . Change was not going on until something was created, because change is part of the creation. God alone is unchanging because He is Pure Being, Existence, and Pure Act, we are finite, dependent, matter and form, essence and existence, and potency and act, all put together, created. We were given all of these things, we came from nothing. This is the way I understand it.
Change is not a potency. Because it can’t be measured, it doesn’t happen.
When you lose something and then find it: Did it really move, or did you just relocate it where it always was?
The universe is all potency because it has the ability to become something it never was.
Where no change is perceived, we say there is stillness. The moment seems like a circle stretched into a ellipses, more and more eccentric as stillness lasts. But the underlying perfection of the circle is always present. Somewhere out in time, a creative mind is perfecting the circle above and below, on the sides, or perpendicular to the axis of the stretch. For as far as yours or anyone’s elliptical and eccentric thinking stretches the circle, there is a God out there to show us that a perfect circle is still possible. When we help restore things to perfection, we recognize that is a battle. But God has put eternity in the hearts of men.
