Note (return) — Chapter XII

I. The Ontological Form of Proof.--It is necessary to conceive an eternal and immutable substance--an actuality which is absolute and prior, both logically and chronologically, to all potentiality; for that which is potential is simply contingent, it may just as easily not be as be; that which exists only in capacity is temporal and corruptible, and may cease to be. Matter we know subsists merely in capacity and passivity, and without the operation of Energy, (ἐνέργεια), or the formative cause, would be to us as non-entity. The phenomena of the world exhibits to us the presence of Energy, and energy presupposes the existence of an eternal substance. Furthermore, matter and potentiality are convertible terms, therefore the primal Energy or Actuality must be immaterial. 738