Actuality and Potentiality

Reason proposes that self-mythologizing is fine 'when you're young,' but that at some point you have to set aside childish things. That's an interesting principle I find somewhat attractive. Younger people are still 'coming to be,' and imagination can help them to decide how to actualize what is still mostly potential in them. At some point, however, you are actual enough that you should stand on what you've really done.

On the other hand, one cannot actualize what does not already exist as a potential. I can't actualize being Cherokee; I can't actualize being a woman either, current fashion notwithstanding. This is in line with Aristotle's dictum that 'potentiality is first actuality.'

Still, I'm not inclined to view someone harshly who -- even in their 20s -- has a rich imaginative life, so long as they are working towards translating what they imagine of themselves into actual accomplishments. Deeds to be proud of; becoming someone who has 'been, and done.' If they do that, I'd let youthful imagination fall away as harmless as the actual person emerges in adulthood.

2 comments:

Christopher B said...

It's worth remembering that the origin of all this was Warren's claim that her parents eloped because her father's parents objected to her mother's Native American heritage. This appears to have been disproven by contemporaneous news accounts, genealogy, and now DNA.

Grim said...

At this point I'm talking less about the particular case, and more about the universal principles that underlie how we might think about similar cases going forward.