Dynamis in Gorgias and Metaphysics Theta: Notes for a History of Power

• In Event: Ancient Concepts in Contemporary Political Thought

Abstract

In previous work, I noticed how the confusion between the concepts of potentiality and power has hindered our capacity to make sense of the latter and, therefore, of politics as such. The words are of course the same – dynamis and potentia both meaning at once power and potentiality in Greek and Latin – but the concepts are different enough to produce opposite effects on our understanding of politics. Potentiality includes a teleological orientation that power lacks (or rather, is agnostic about), so that conflating the two prevents us from conceptualizing politics as a domain for which ends are not always pre-given. Within a history of power, to which this paper would be a first contribution, it is therefore crucial to trace the invention of “potentiality” back to its origins, here tentatively located in Plato’s Gorgias and Aristotle’s Metaphysics Theta. Both Plato and Aristotle impressed a fundamental change on dynamis to further their political and philosophical purposes, altering our understanding of power forever since. Examining these classic texts in a new light will allow us to understand more clearly the roots of out longstanding difficulty in making sense of power as a concept and politics as both an activity and an object of knowledge.

Author

• Guido Parietti, MSU - James Madison College