{"id":65,"date":"2006-10-05T17:50:46","date_gmt":"2006-10-05T17:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/summametaphysica.com\/ge\/20000-the-underlying-dynamic\/20001-general-quest-for-potential\/"},"modified":"2018-04-23T20:16:10","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T20:16:10","slug":"20001-general-quest-for-potential","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.summametaphysica.com\/ge\/20000-the-underlying-dynamic\/20001-general-quest-for-potential\/","title":{"rendered":"200.01 General Quest for Potential (pps.78-81)
a Natural Order
b Mortal
c Universal"},"content":{"rendered":"

hard cover page 78<\/p>\n

200.01 a Natural Order<\/p>\n

And all the goodliness of God is as the flower of the field.
\n-Isaiah 40:6<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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hard cover page 79<\/p>\n

God, as the cosmic ruler, is beheld in His boundless majesty reigning supreme over creation, His will crystallized in the natural law, His word determining the behavioral patterns of nature.
\n-Soloveitchik274<\/sup><\/p>\n

The Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters and over the void. And God said, Let there be light.
\n-Genesis 1:2-3<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From there on through this day the majesty of creation seeks its maximal potential.275<\/sup> Life is daring.276 <\/sup>The cosmos strives not just for survival; it quests for its maximal potential:277<\/sup> Long before Prometheus stole fire from the gods to give to man, God grasped life from out of the void and created fire and man.278<\/sup><\/p>\n

200.01b Mortal279<\/sup><\/p>\n

Man inevitably seeks out the highest mountain, literally and allegorically. He girds himself and summons the guts, energy, and means to challenge it. Sometimes quixotically, sometimes daringly. Sometimes a fine line.280<\/sup><\/p>\n

Man will construct gossamer cathedrals with spires reaching heavenward, and project space probes to the far ends of the cosmos.281<\/sup> Man stands questing, hands lifted heavenward.282<\/sup><\/p>\n

Soloveitchik describes “Adam the first”283<\/sup> as “aggressive, bold, and victory-minded. His motto is success, triumph over cosmic forces. He engages in creative work, trying to imitate his Maker (imitatio Dei)<\/em>.”283<\/sup><\/p>\n

200.0 1c Universal<\/p>\n

The universe seeks its maximum and optimal potential- inexorably.285<\/sup> For this, we postulate, is its raison d’\u00c3\u00aatre<\/em>. We can only speculate on the precise hierarchic standing of various potentialities, but we suspect that spirituality is near the apex.286<\/sup><\/p>\n

For those philosophers who are of the opinion that God<\/p>\n

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274 <\/sup>Soloveitchik, “The Lonely Man of Faith,” p. 31.<\/p>\n

275 <\/sup>See Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah,<\/em> p. 289. “The divine power spreading from the sefiroth into Creation . . .also descends below the human domain to living beings of a lower order, even to plants.”<\/p>\n

276 <\/sup> “That they may know from the rising of the sun from the east. and its setting westward, that there is none beside Me; I am the Lord, and there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:6).<\/p>\n

277 <\/sup>See Kant, Idea of a Universal History,<\/em> First Proposition, as cited in Passmore, The Perfectibility of Man,<\/em> p. 216. “All the capacities implanted in a creature by nature, are destined to unfold themselves, con~pletely and con- formably to their end, in the course of time.” “Who can fail to discover that the hand of the Lord is behind all this!” (Job 12:9).<\/p>\n

278 <\/sup>See Soloveitchik, “The Lonely Man of Faith,” p. 32 (citing Bereshit Rabbah 59): “Our sages said that before Abraham appeared, majestes dei<\/em> (the glory of God) was reflected only by the distant heavens and it was a mute nature which ‘spoke’ of the glory of God. It was Abraham who ‘crowned’ Him the God of the earth, i.e., the God of men.”<\/p>\n

279 <\/sup>See Scholem, Origins of the Kabbalah<\/em>, p. 339, expounding on the views of the “Gerona circle” of kabbalists. “In this view, primordial man is . . . only a configuration of the supreme potencies.”<\/p>\n

280 <\/sup>See Schulweis, Evil and the Morality of God<\/em>, p. 129. “Akiba, the rabbinic sage, is asked by Tinneius Rufus. the pagan, ‘whose works are greater, those of God or those of man?’ Akiba replies that the works of man excel, and as evidence places before him sheaves of wheat and dishes of cakes. Akiba regards the latter as greater not because he would denigrate God. For Akiba God and the human being are not contending forces. The sheaves represent the nonhuman givenness-the product of seed, water, soil, and sun: the cakes represent the transformation of that givenness, the actualization of the potential for the sake of the sustenance of humanity. It is bread and wine, not sheaves and grapes, which are sanctified in praise of the transaction which with human hands brings the natural process to controlled perfection. The ideals are not the final reality already extant in some realm of being. Rabbinic wisdom expresses the faith which calls for transformation. ‘Every- thing needs to be acted upon. The lupine must be soaked, the mustard seed sweetened, the wheat ground, and man must be perfected. Everything re- quires repair.’ ”<\/p>\n

281 <\/sup>According to Herder, men of different ages are linked by a “golden chain of improvement.” Herder. Ideas,<\/em> bk. IX, chap. 1, p. 231, as cited in Passmore, The Perfectibility of Man,<\/em> p. 223.<\/p>\n

282 <\/sup>See the discussion of Soloveitchik in Peli, On Repentance,<\/em> p. 14. Cf. “. . . a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, \/ Or what’s a heaven for?” Browning, Andrea del Sarto.<\/em><\/p>\n

283 <\/sup>There are two places where Scripture relates the creation of man. The first is near the end of Genesis I; the second, in Genesis 2. There has been considerable discussion on the differences in wording and nuance between the two chapters. See Soloveitchik’s classic “The Lonely Man of Faith.”<\/p>\n

284 <\/sup>Ibid., p. 15.<\/p>\n

285 <\/sup>See Herbert Spencer, Social Statics,<\/em> ed. cit., pt. I, chap. 11, #4, 65, as cited in Passmore, The Perfectibility of Man.<\/em> p. 241. “Progress . . . is not an accident, but a necessity.” See also Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, <\/em>p. 121. “Why did the universe start out with so nearly the critical rate of expansion that separates models that recollapse from those that go on expanding forever, so that even now, ten thousand million years later, it is still expanding at nearly the critical rate? If the rate of expansion one second after the big bang had been smaller by even one part in a hundred thousand million million, the universe would have recollapsed before it ever reached its present size.”<\/p>\n

286 <\/sup>Faith is described as “the queen of virtues” by Philo, On Abraham,<\/em> XLVI, 270 (Loeb ed., vol. 6. p. 133).as cited in Passmore, The Perfectibility of Man,<\/em> p. 61.<\/p>\n

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fashioned the world out of primeval matter, or that random combinations of primeval matter evolved into the universe, ultimately the question narrows down to: Where did the small- est subatomic particle come from? Ultimately they must bridge the gap from “nothingness” to “somethingness.”<\/p>\n

For all those who postulate eternal God or gods, the question remains: In what sense is eternity to be understood?<\/p>\n

In Jewish philosophical tradition only the kabbalists face the issue. And their solution is the obscure En Sof<\/em>. We propose a parallel solution: that the infinitely holy quest for potential- the core of the Divine-bridged the gap.<\/p>\n

The perception that dawns on a person to see the world not as finished, but as in the process of continued becoming, ascending, developing-this changes him from being “under the sun” to being “above the sun.”
\n-Kook287<\/sup><\/p>\n

The universe is not static, it is on the march to the future.
\n-Gordis288<\/sup><\/p>\n

Now things desire their perfections.
\n-Aquinas289<\/sup><\/p>\n

History, therefore, is moving toward a final perfection.
\n-I. Greenberg290<\/sup><\/p>\n

. . . the full worth of reality is found not in its actual, but in its potential value.
\n-Berkovits291<\/sup><\/p>\n

The creative act is an escape from the power of time and ascent to the divine.
\n-Berdyaev292<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In contrast, classic Aristotelianism does not focus on poten- tiality in general in any significant way. According to the classic position, a potential is actualized only by some actually existing<\/p>\n

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287 <\/sup>Bokser, Abraham Isaac Kook<\/em>, p. 229,<\/p>\n

288 <\/sup>Gordis, The Book of God and Man<\/em>, p. 147. Cf. idem, A Faith for Moderns<\/em><\/em>, p. 208.<\/p>\n

289 <\/sup>Aquinas, Summa Theologiae<\/em>, vol. I, q. 6, a. 1, p. 110.<\/p>\n

290 <\/sup>Greenberg, Perspectives: The Third Great Cycle of Jewish History,<\/em> p. 1.<\/p>\n

291 <\/sup>Berkovits, God, Man and History,<\/em> p. 81.<\/p>\n

292 <\/sup>Berdyaev, The Destiny of Man, <\/em>p. 136. Berdyaev elegantly straddles the Aristotelian position of creation out of primal matter, and the position of those (including traditional Jewish think- ers) who posit creation ex nihilo<\/em> (“out of nothingness”).<\/p>\n

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thing as its cause. It is the “Prime Mover” who actualizes potentialities.293<\/sup><\/p>\n

In our system, however, “Holy Potentiality” is a thoroughly overarching dynamic, emanating from the infinitely holy through creation to the far reaches of the cosmic order. Solov- eitchik notes: “He is the Lord of the hosts, who resides in every infinitessimal particle of creation and the whole universe is replete with His glory.”293<\/sup><\/p>\n

The infinitely holy potentialities themselves, embedded within eternity, are inherent in the eternal origins of the Divine. This is one of our crucial divergences from the Aristo- telian line of approach.295<\/sup><\/p>\n

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293 <\/sup>In Aquinas’ De Potentia Dei,<\/em> potency (power) and act are important principles; however, Aquinas’ meaning, emphasis, and thrust are different from ours. For summary, see article on Thomas Aquinas in Encyclopedia of Philosophy<\/em> (New York: Macmillan, 1967), vol. 8, p . 110.<\/p>\n

294 <\/sup>Soloveitchik, “The Lonely Man of Faith,” elaborating on the verse “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory” (Isaiah 6:3).<\/p>\n

295 <\/sup>To our knowledge, the Aristotelians, while considering, at least pe- ripherally, the concept of potential, do not seem to have proffered or developed the concept of holy potentiality, specifically: Holy Potential within potential within potential, …ad infinitum.<\/em><\/p>\n

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