The Peripatetic on unactualized possibilities.

I once wrote a whole paper on a single, seemingly innocuous, line from Aristotle:

"For example, it is possible for this cloak to be cut up, and yet it will not be cut up but it will wear out first. (De Int. 9)"



Not only is the truth of this proposition deeply perplexing from the point of view of trying to understand Aristotle's modal thought, it's deeply perplexing tout court.