Aristotle's Position on the Existence Term Paper

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The material cause refers to that substance out of which a thing is constructed. The formal cause is the idea of the thing in the mind of the creator who sets about creating that particular thing. The efficient cause is the Agent - or the being that creates the thing. The final cause is the purpose for which the thing has been created.

Mere potentiality does not exist on its own, but enters into the creation of all things - except for the Supreme Cause. Mere potentiality thus stands at one pole of reality, while the Supreme Cause - or God - is at the other. Both of these entities are real. Materia prima contains the most attenuated reality, as it is pure indeterminateness. God, on the other hand, contains the highest, most complete reality, as God is on the highest level of determinateness. One of the central tasks of metaphysics, then, becomes the demonstration of the existence of the Supreme Cause. This is what Aristotle attempts to do in his First Philosophy.

Departing from the first major premise of Socrates' teleological argument ("Whatever exists for a useful purpose must be the work of an intelligence"), Aristotle argues that, while motion is eternal, it is not possible that there may be an infinite series of movers and of things moved. Thus, there must be only one mover - the first in the series - that is unmoved.

In Metaphysics, Aristotle develops his notion that the actual is inherently antecedent to the potential. Thus, before all matter comes into existence, there must have existed a Being that is pure actuality, and whose life consists of self-contemplative thought.

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This is what God is. This Supreme Being managed to impart movement to the universe by moving the First Heaven. The First Heaven was set in motion as a result of the desirability of the Supreme Being. As a result, a sort of "chain reaction" was set in place, wherein motion was then imparted to the lower spheres, and eventually, to our terrestrial realm of existence.

According to this conception of the universe, God never leaves the eternal repose in which His blessedness exists. His being is eternally unalterable and incompatible with will and intellect. If motion, time, and matter are all eternal, then the world itself must also be eternal. At the same time, the world is not an arbitrary sphere - it is something that has been caused. Aristotle, however, did not explore the way in which the world came into being.

Aristotle's conception of God would have a major influence on the development of Western metaphysics. In particular, Aristotle influenced Anselm's conception of God. Anselm believed that God did not feel emotions, although He appeared to do so through our imperfect understanding of His blessedness. Aristotle's method of establishing God's existence would also have a profound effect on many medieval philosophers, who would similarly invoke a negative process of establishing knowledge of a Divine Being. Finally, Aristotelian theology would come to be accepted by many later Jewish philosophers, including Gersonides, Samuel Ibn Tibbon, and Maimonides......

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