Potency

The capacity or possibility of becoming something (Aristotelian: *dynamis*). The "being-in-itself" (Ch. 1.7). The logic develops how potency (e.g., the concept) becomes actuality (act) (Ch. 7.4, 19.2). In a narrower sense, also the **relation of powers (exponential relation)** in the doctrine of quantity (Ch. 2.6): the last of the three relational forms and the turning point toward measure. The heightening consists in the fact that the mediating third term drops away. In the direct relation (y = kx) the exponent is added from outside; in the inverse relation (pV = const) the connection lies in a constant product; in the relation of powers, the quantity determines itself through its own repetition — to raise to a power means to apply the operation to its own result. That is why quantity here is no longer indifferent to what it determines: the square of a length is an area, its cube a volume. Quantity has produced a quality — and with that, the doctrine of quantity comes to an end.