Term Paper on "Aristotle's Position on the Existence of God"

Term Paper 4 pages (1141 words) Sources: 2 Style: MLA

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Aristotle's Position On The Existence Of God

Aristotle's theory of the existence of God has been very influential throughout the development of Western philosophy. In his first discussion of God in his famous work, Metaphysics, Aristotle began by discussing the notion of "being as being." While it is believed by some that Metaphysics was cobbled together from several of Aristotle's disparate writings, others subscribe to the view that the Metaphysics forms a cohesive worldview - as well as a cohesive theory of God. It is to this position that we now turn.

In the Metaphysics, Aristotle claims that "being" refers almost exclusively to what he termed the "Unmoved Movers." In his view, one of each Unmoved Mover is attached to a movement in the heavens. Every one of the Unmoved Movers is in a state of continual contemplation of its own contemplation. Everything that fits in to the second notion of "being" by having its source of motion within itself, is able to move purely because its knowledge of its mover impels it to emulate its particular Mover - or at least it should be this way.

One of the key components of Aristotle's theory is his refutation of Platonic theory. According to Plato, ideas serve as the ultimate principles of Being. Aristotle feels that Plato rendered this theory in order to explain how things are and how things come to be known. But as such, it is an inadequate theory. Aristotle contends that when we postulate the idea of things apart from the things themselves we are causing complications. The ideas must have some definite contact with the things; otherwise they cannot explain how those things came into existence or how we came to know them. As a scientific theory, Plato's theory fails. This is because instead of trying to back up his ideas he instead implies abstract expressions, such as "imitation" and "participation." Such expressions imply a contradiction, if they are to be taken as more than mere empty metaphors. By implying that ideas exist in a world separate from the world of phenomena, Aristotle feels that Plato is precluding the possibility of solving by means of ideas the problem of the ultimate nature of reality.

Aristotle designates the two highest determinations of Being as Actuality and Potentiality. The former is meant to represent perfection, realization, and the fullness of being. Potentiality is meant to designate imperfection, perfectibility, and incompleteness. While Actuality is meant to serve as the determining principle, Potentiality is the determinable principle. These two determinations stand above all other Categories in the Aristotelian universe. They are to be found in all beings except for the Supreme Cause, in which there is no imperfection whatsoever - as well as no potentiality.

According to this scheme, then, God is all actuality - or Actus Purus. All other beings are thus composed of both actuality and potentiality. This dualism can be found at the heart of all Western metaphysics, and was later developed into such concepts as body and soul, matter and form, and passive and active intellect. In the physical order, potentiality and actuality were transformed into Matter and Form. To this dualism, one can also add the Efficient Cause and the Final Cause (or the Agent and the End.) but as efficiency and finality are ultimately reduced to Form, in the physical order there are really only two ultimate principles of being - Matter and Form.… READ MORE

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