Harney, Dr Maria: From Aristotelian Act-Potency to Artificial Algorithms: Neuroethics of AI-mediated Neurotechnology as Extrinsic Actualizing Principle and Integrity of Human Agency

_Hermes_:1-10. 2026This paper examines the Aristotelian framework of act and potency in relation to human moral agency and evaluates its implications in the context of AI-mediated neuroenhancement. Drawing on Aristotle’s account of energeia as the intrinsic actualization of rational potential grounded in the soul as formal and final cause, the paper argues that human agency consists in a unified process of internally ordered actualization. Against this metaphysical background, contemporary brain