Energeia is an important Greek technical term in the works of Aristotle. The two components of his coinage indicate something being "in work". Joe Sachs attempts to translate it literally as a "being at work" although conventionally terms like activity and actuality are used. Most translators seem to make no effort to find one single translation. Aristotle (sculpture) Aristotle (Greek: ÎÏιÏÏοÏÎÎ»Î·Ï AristotelÄs; 384 BC â March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher. ...
Aristotle contrasts the concept energeia with dunamis and hexis, in various places. See Eudemian Ethics II.i.1218b and Nicomachean Ethics I.viii.1098b33. And it is sometimes compared to kinesis (movement or perhaps sometimes change). See Metaphysics IX.iii.1047a. Dunamis is a Greek word sometimes seen in English texts because of its importance in philosophy. ... Eudemian ethics focuses ethics based on enjoyment of happiness as the ultimate End. ... The Nicomachean Ethics is one of Aristotles greatest works and discusses virtue and character. ... Biology Kinesis is a movement or activity of a cell or an organism in response to a stimulus such as light. ... The term Movement has a variety of different meanings: Look up Movement in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Physical movement between points in space (A to B). The amount of movement is called distance. ... This article is about the normal meaning of change (things varying). ... // Metaphysics (Greek words meta = after/beyond and physics = nature) is a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of first principles and being (ontology). ...
At Nicomachean Ethics I.viii.1098b33 the relative importance of activity or being at work is made clear, concerning which also see Metaphysics VIII-IX, and consider that modern translators of Aristotle translate energeia as both “activity” and “actuality” in the sense of something which is more than just potentially existent. The Nicomachean Ethics is one of Aristotles greatest works and discusses virtue and character. ... // Metaphysics (Greek words meta = after/beyond and physics = nature) is a branch of philosophy concerned with the study of first principles and being (ontology). ...
Energeia (energy) was invoked as the protector of the ephemeral Free State of Fiume (Croatia, 1920-1924) by Italian poet and war hero Gabriele D'Annunzio, who also called it "the tenth Muse" in the constitution he drafted for it [1].
Energeia is formed by the addition of a noun ending to the adjective energon; we might construct the word is-at-work-ness from Anglo-Saxon roots to translate energeia into English, or use the more euphonious periphrastic expression, being-at-work.
Energeia, then, always means the being-at-work of some definite, specific something; the rock cannot undergo metabolism, and once the fish does no more than fall to earth and remain there it is no longer a fish.
Just as energeia extends to entelecheia because it is the activity which makes a thing what it is, entelecheia extends to energeia because it is the end or perfection which has being only in, through, and during activity.