Hansen Breitling
Medieval Philosophy
3/1/2014
Synoptic Paper on Aristotle
Topic 2: Aristotle on God
Produce an accurate, coherent and well-organized synopsis of Aristotle’s views and
arguments on God. Compare his God to the omniscient, omnibenevolent and omnipotent
God of monotheistic faiths and then arrive at an answer to the following question: Is
Aristotle a polytheist, a henotheist or a monotheist? (‘Henotheism’ is usually defined as
the belief in one god without denying the existence of others, or a belief in one supreme
or specially venerated god who is not the only god.) Base your account on a careful
reading and patient examination of the selections from Physics and Metaphysics, but
mainly the latter.
Aristotle reaches his conclusions about God through reasoning, primarily by
focusing on motion and its nature. Aristotle reasons that if motion was finite then this
would be a contradiction. For if the universe was at some point at rest, then how could
there come to be a first motion? The first motion would have to be the result of some
change in the restfulness of the universe, and change requires motion (Physics Book VIII,
par.251b). So, Aristotle claims, motion has to be everlasting. Even if motion is
everlasting though, Aristotle believes there must be something(s) that is the first or
primary “mover”, because all things are moved by something. In order to be the cause of
everlasting motion though, this mover would have to be eternal as well. In addition, if the
first mover is moved by something else (as everything is) but is also the first mover, then
it must be put in motion by itself. Aristotle refers to this as an unmoved mover, the
primary source of motion and change in all things, and yet is apart from all things
because it is not moved by anything else (Physics Book VIII, par.258b 10). How this
mover causes movement in other things as well as the number of movers will be
discussed next.
The way in which this mover puts other things into motion is something Aristotle
criticizes other philosophers for not having explained. His explanation for the issue is that
this mover is an object of desire or understanding. By this he means that it is the “fine”
nature of the mover that produces an appetite in other things for it, hence causing motion
without being moved by anything else (Metaphysics Book VII, par. 1072a). Aristotle
does also provide other details as to the life of this mover, such as the fact that is
completely indivisible. Another is that this mover’s life consists of the highest character
possible, “complete actuality”. Since the unmoved mover is also the most divine of all
things (residing in the most divine of Aristotle’s three types of substances, that which is
not sense perceptible and also eternal), it understands the most divine thing; its own
understanding. Here Aristotle calls the mover God and also states the number of Gods
that exist. Basing his answer on astronomy and sources of movement, the number forty
seven is generated. This can be contrasted with what Aristotle says in Physics, where he
claims that we must supposed there is only one unmoved mover. Overall his answer to
the number of unmoved movers is unclear because of inconsistencies in his writing. Now
I will discuss the similarities and differences between Aristotle’s God(s) and
monotheistic faiths’ conception of God.
Aristotle’s God(s) are similar to monotheistic ones in that they are the cause for
change in the universe and are good. However Aristotle’s God is not omniscient, nor does
it feel benevolence towards things because it only thinks of itself, making it more distant.
All this leads to the conclusion that Aristotle was a henotheist, as he asserts that there is
at least one God, and at times concludes that there are more, but also seems to want to
reason for the existence of a singular unmoved mover. Thus he is a henotheist because he
claims the existence of at least one God with denying the existence of others.
521 Words