Genealogies of Scientific Construal: 2 Platonic and Aristotelian Naturals: Ordering Possibility

Focus: How Greek philosophy structured potential through formal and material principles.

Throughline: Possibility is no longer merely observed; it is conceptualised, classified, and relationally ordered.

Following the empirical beginnings of Greek natural philosophy, Plato and Aristotle introduced systematic frameworks for construal that went beyond observation to ontological structuring of potential. For Plato, the cosmos was intelligible through ideal forms: patterns of order that exist relationally, providing the blueprint for phenomena. Possibility is abstracted — not every observed event is treated individually, but as an instantiation of universal principles. The cut between the ideal and the actual allows a conception of potential as constrained by relational perfection: what may occur must align with structural forms, rendering the cosmos simultaneously intelligible and generative.

Aristotle extended and transformed this framework through his analysis of substance, causality, and teleology. Possibility is hierarchically organized: the potential of each entity is determined by its nature, its place within nested categories, and its end-directed motion. Construal here is both descriptive and normative: the cosmos is not a chaotic collection of events but a structured field of potential actualisation, where motion, growth, and transformation are intelligible according to relational laws embedded in matter and form.

Modulatory voices:

• Plato: forms as relational templates governing what can manifest; potential constrained by ideal patterning.

• Aristotle: substance, causality, and teleology as relational rules for actualisation; contrasts with pre-Socratic focus on general principle.

Together, these thinkers demonstrate a pivotal re-cut of possibility: from observational regularity to principled, relational structuring. The cosmos is no longer simply observed; it is interpreted through a systemic lens, where potentialities are intelligible only as relationally ordered and hierarchically structured.