Beginning with Aristotle, human being is a rational animal. In order to comprehend this idea we must understand its factors. First, potency (a new word Aristotle introduces to philosophy) is the capability for some kind of activity. Second, act is the fulfillment of a capability. Aristotle claims that a changeable being is a composite of act (principle of difference) and potency (principle of sameness). "A being is a potential as far as its potency," meaning when the potential is fulfilled, change has completed.

Digging deeper into the understanding of these factors, we reach a key term, substance. Substance is the combination of matter and form. Again, breaking down each term, we see its significance to potency, act, and finally erring. Matter (talking about the makeup of a changeable being), is what a thing is made up of. As previously stated, for a thing to change it must have potential, matter is this potential. A changeable being has the ability to change at a substantial level. The other half to substance is form. Form is the principal of act (fulfillment of potency) at the substantial level. Again, this brings us back to our first two terms, potenc

What is being real for Aristotle? Being real is not an accident, it is a substance. Although being real is said in many senses, the primary sense is the fulfillment of a potential, it is not potential. For example, a house which has already been built is a potential fulfilled, while a house in construction is simply a house potentially.

A synthesis is a relation of two factors. Man is not a self because of the antithesis which is another self. Therefore, the contradiction being, self is ultimately a disrelationship in a relation because in the process there is always another self.

Kierkegaard's thoughts on human being are directly opposite of Aristotle's. Existentialists do not like to divide up self like Aristotle (mind, body, etc.), they go by experience. His philosophy stems from a combination of Plato (justice) and Hegel (three fold dialectic principle of change). To Kierkegaard, a Lutheran Minister with Christian beliefs, human being is a relation ("in between"). He sees self in a process of coming to know one's self. The self that you are now is not the self you are going to be. In one sense, you see self in its limitations, and in another you see it for all it could be. Because

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