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Question

Dear Father Angelo,

I wanted to ask you if there is a difference between actuality, potentiality, being and habit.

Kind regards

Luca

Answer

Dear Luca,

1. There is a connection between the first two realities and one between the last two.

Let’s take a look at the first two: actuality and potentiality.

Actuality comes from act. Actuality or action are the same thing.

Potentiality is the same thing as possibility.

2. While actuality implies perfection and completeness, potentiality implies the possibility to become.

Each reality is made of actuality and potentiality.

Actuality stands for what reality is.

Potentiality stands for what reality can do or become.

3. For example we are people in actuality, in that we are made of body and soul.

We are in potentiality, in that we can become doctors, architects, lawyers, etc.

The person who practices medicine and architecture is a doctor and an architect in actuality.

A student is a doctor or an architect in potentiality.

One more example: a baby in its mother’s womb is a person in actuality, but it is a priest, a doctor, an architect in potentiality.

4. Distinction is made between first and second actuality.

A doctor and an architect, while they are sleeping, are doctor and architect in first actuality.

Whereas when they practice, they are doctor and architect in second actuality.

When someone sleeps, they are rational in first actuality. Whereas when they reason, they are rational in second actuality.

A baby in its mother’s womb is rational in first actuality.

Whereas when he/she reasons, he/she is rational in second actuality.

5. Let’s now move on to the concepts of being and habit.

Being is everything that has existence.

Habit instead refers to expressing oneself in a certain way and in a constant manner.

There is the so-called mental habit, which consists of approaching the knowledge of reality always from a certain perspective.

When Pope John was a seminarist, he made the choice to create for himself a mental habit thanks to which he would observe all things from the point of view of the crucifix, in order to appreciate what Jesus Christ appreciated on the cross and despise what He despised.

Similarly, a person of faith interprets all events from the point of view of God and of eternity.

6. Beside mental habits, there are also moral habits which define the constant way of acting in a righteous or unrighteous manner.

Moral habits consist of virtues and vices.

7. There are even operative habits which make it possible to act in a rapid, confident and easy way, for example they make it possible to write, sing, do things like use a computer or drive a car.

So, I think I managed to approximately answer your questions.

I remember you to the Lord, I wish you the best and I bless you.

Father Angelo