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Literary notes about Potentiality (AI summary)

In literature, the term "potentiality" is used to highlight an inherent capacity or latent force waiting to be realized through external influence or internal development. Authors often contrast what is merely possible with what is actual, suggesting that potentiality is both a promise of future actuality and a state of incompleteness. Some thinkers emphasize its role as an underlying power or capacity, as in discussions of the natural world or human creativity ([1], [2]), while others use it to illustrate the gradual journey from possibility to reality, showing that habits or forms must transition from potential to actual existence ([3], [4]). In certain writings, potentiality extends beyond the material into moral, intellectual, or even divine realms, signifying growth and transformation that is inherent yet unfinished ([5], [6], [7]).
  1. But we also mean by capacity an ability, a power; and by potentiality potency, force.
    — from Democracy and Education: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Education by John Dewey
  2. Potentiality is not mere capacity; it is being in an undeveloped, imperfect stage.
    — from Leibniz's New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding: A Critical Exposition by John Dewey
  3. Wherefore nothing forbids habit to be in the "possible" intellect, for it is midway between pure potentiality and perfect act.
    — from Summa Theologica, Part I-II (Pars Prima Secundae)From the Complete American Edition by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint
  4. Suppose the seed of a tree, say of a lemon: this seed is in potentiality to become a lemon.
    — from The Catholic World, Vol. 08, October, 1868, to March, 1869. by Various
  5. Having in him the potentiality of the Supreme Being, he can develop, and attain godhood.
    — from Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 7 of 7 by Edgar Thurston
  6. In every individual there was, they realised, the potentiality of Buddha—that is to say, the Infinite made manifest.
    — from Creative Unity by Rabindranath Tagore
  7. Shall we rise to its full potentiality, both in a material and in a moral sense?
    — from The New York Stock Exchange and Public OpinionRemarks at Annual Dinner, Association of Stock Exchange Brokers, Held at the Astor Hotel, New York, January 24, 1917 by Otto H. Kahn

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