ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the ontological reconstruction of contrariety in Aristotle's philosophy was a decisive advantage over all previous thinkers. It provides contrariety within the exclusive focus of ontological analysis in order to fix the conditions of its validity and meaningfulness. The chapter deals with precision the minimum number of principles needed for metaphysical analysis and inquire into their ontological status. It considers the prime contrariety in its dynamic equivalent as expressed in the opposition of actuality-potentiality. The chapter aims to clarify the applications of privation, as one of the terms of the prime contrariety, to the related meanings of matter. It discusses potentiality as a generic concept standing for various types of matter in the process of actualization of their relative forms. The metaphysical contrariety, developmentally viewed, takes the form of potentiality-actuality. Potentiality and actuality are always connected with particular beings.
