neo aristotelian metaphysics and the theology of nature

He moves the outermost sphere of the fixed stars and this motion is transmitted to the inner spheres by ordinary mechanical processes. He must accordingly be all form, all actuality, and so completely immaterial. He cannot therefore be composed like other substances of actuality and potentiality. It was canonized by Aquinas as one of his “five ways” to God, and is still seriously propounded in neo-scholastic textbooks of natural theology.Īristotle’s reply to the second question, “what can we know about God?” runs as follows: Since God is an unmoved mover, he must be changeless. Nonetheless, this argument has had a long history. Aristotle gives no satisfactory proof of (d) that an infinite series is impossible. And if this is false then we do not have to accept premise (c) and its disjunction between an infinite series and an unmoved mover. The second premise that everything that is moved is moved by something else is incompatible with Newton’s first law of motion. The claim that there exists an eternal circular motion is incompatible with the Second Law of thermodynamics. This argument is not taken seriously today since most of its premises have been rejected by modern science.

Therefore, (e) there is an unmoved cause of motion, and this is God. An infinite series of motions is impossible. (c) Therefore, there must be either an infinite series of causes or a cause of motion that is itself unmoved. (b) Everything that is moved is moved by something else. His statement is very complex, but its main outlines can be indicated as follows: (a) There exists an eternal circular motion, namely the movement of the sphere of the fixed stars. In answer to question (1), Aristotle develops one argument, the argument from the existence of change or motion. It can be summarized in the answer to two questions: (1) Why must we postulate the existence of God? And (2) What can we know about God? Aristotle’s theology is set out in books VII and VIII of the Physics and Book XII of the Metaphysics.

He is the source of motion and change in the universe, and He stands at the pinnacle of the Great Chain of Being by providing an example of pure form existing without any relation to matter. God serves two roles in Aristotle’s philosophy. For Aristotle, metaphysics ultimately culminates in theology.ĪRISTOTLE’S CONCEPT OF GOD BY STANLEY SFEKAS Yet Aquinas and the medieval theologians achieved a synthesis of Aristotle’s God and Christianity. Aristotle did not attribute mercy, love, sympathy and providence to God, but rather eternal self-contemplation. He stood outside the Great Chain of Being yet was the source of all motion and development. He was the crowning objective of all dynamic development in the cosmos from matter to form and from potentiality to actuality. Aristotle conceived of God as outside of the world, as the final cause of all motion in Nature, as Prime Mover and Unmoved Mover of the universe.

Neo aristotelian metaphysics and the theology of nature