A Beginner's History of Philosophy, Vol. 1: Ancient and Mediæval Philosophy

by Herbert Ernest Cushman

Aristotle’s conception of purpose as exemplified by artistic products preponderates over his original conception of purpose. When he regards the individual objects in the world, not as self-contained but as relative to one another, he has a different conception of the world. In this case the individuals are not realities but have reference to a reality transcending them. The world is still a developing world, but the essence that unfolds itself is not in phenomena. It is a goal for whichphenomena strive. The fulfillment of the purpose is beyond. Individual things are only a scale of values relative to some transcendent standard. To illustrate: the bud, the blossom, the fruit, have not their realization in themselves, but as food; again, the growing tree, the timber lying on the ground, the timber in the house, have their realization in the completed house; again, in the world at large, the original nebulous matter of the universe, the first-formed worlds, the early years of this earth, the succeeding centuries, the 20th century of this world, are only a scale of values for something in the future.

In facing such facts, Aristotle had to depart from his original conceptualistic standard of the world as an organic unity and of individual things having their meaning in themselves. View a thing by itself, and it seems to be a self-contained reality which unfolds for itself alone. View a thing with reference to other things, and its reality is in something else. Here is Aristotle no longer as he meant to be, but as he really was. He is now Plato’s pupil. Each thing now is to be regarded, not as containing in itself the two aspects of Form and Matter, but as the possibility of something and the actuality of something else. The blossom is the possibility or Matter of the fruit and the Form or actuality of the bud. The nineteenth century is the Form of the eighteenth and the Matter of the twentieth. But development has a limit above and below, according to Aristotle: below, in Matter that is without Form; above, in Form that is without Matter. Pure Form is God, who excludes from Himself all Matter or possibility, because He is perfect. Pure Matter is the lower limit, which is entire possibility, and exists only to be formed. Hereis a dualism as distinct as Plato’s, which Aristotle not only did not overcome but which he developed. In the same way that Plato contrasted Ideas and empty space, Aristotle contrasted God as pure Form and Matter as pure possibility.

In this final dualistic form in which Aristotle left his teaching, there are three specific doctrines which the student must consider carefully. They are important because they had great influence in later orthodox theology and in theories of nature. These special doctrines are (1) Aristotle’s conception of God; (2) his conception of matter; (3) his conception of nature.

3. Aristotle’s Conception of God. In the Aristotelian system the assumption of an upper final term of pure Form was necessary, because Matter as the possible and potential is not endowed with the power of motion and generation. To Aristotle development is not a process with temporal beginning and ending, but is a kind of closed circuit. Since reality is in itself a developing essence, motion is as eternal as reality. We should not ask, therefore, When did the world begin, and when will it end? but we can legitimately ask, What is the nature of reality that keeps motion alive? When we examine individual things, we find, according to Aristotle’s explanation, that motion is the result of the influence of Form upon Matter. There is inherent in matter an impulse to be formed, and there is inherent in Form an active forming purpose. But we may search individual things in vain for the causal explanation of motion, since every Form is in turn the Matter for a higher Form. The chain would be endless and not intelligible if there did not exist a pure Form, which is unmoved. God as the unmoved mover is the cause of theworld-motion, but God must be the cause in a different sense from the physical causes, which are themselves moved. God operates as a cause upon Matter, not as a mechanical cause but as pure Form,—as a final or teleological cause. God is the cause in the sense that God excites in Matter the impulse to be actual, like God.

This prime mover is similar to Plato’s Idea of the Good. As to its form it is eternal, unmovable, unchangeable, wholly independent and incorporeal, and yet the cause of all generation and change. God is the perfect Being in whom all possibility is actuality. As to its content God is pure thought. But in respect to his thought God is not like human thought, which is concerned with external phenomena and changing things. God is thought that has nothing else for its object than itself and its own unchanging content. God is “thought of thought.” God’s contemplation of himself is his own blessed life. Here in Aristotle is a momentous conception formed for the first time in the history of thought. Monotheism is for the first time conceptually framed and scientifically grounded. The monism of Aristotle’s predecessors passes over into a theism. God is not only immaterial in the sense that Plato defined the Ideas, but he is spiritual. In Aristotle’s transcendent God, conceived as pure self-consciousness, we have the ripest fruit of Greek philosophy.

4. Aristotle’s Conception of Matter. The other and lower limit of Aristotle’s dualism is Matter, “first Matter,” as Aristotle called it. In itself it is wholly unformed and mere possibility. But it is unlike pure Form in this respect,—it never exists in itself. God exists apart from Matter, but since Matter is mere possibility, Matter never exists apart from Form. Matter has a doublecharacter. On the one hand Matter is that which as an accessory cause makes the world of phenomena possible; on the other hand it is the source of the lawless and purposeless in nature. Through its seeking to be formed it makes the presentation of the Idea possible, and yet it stands as a deterrent principle to the full presentation of the Form. On the one hand it is the sine qua non of physical nature, shows itself in real physical effects, and is the basis of mechanical causation, motion, and impact. On the other hand it stands in the way of the Forms actualizing themselves fully, and it prevents the universe from perfecting itself as God is perfect. While Matter is not an indifferent negative (as in Plato’s teaching), but the necessary substratum of corporeal things, it is however the indeterminate, and the ground of the accidental and purposeless in nature. Matter is the infinite and unlimited, and is the source of unusual phenomena, like monstrosities and abortions. Both fate and accident are due to the retarding influence of Matter, because it obstructs the successful working out of Form. Quite in accord with Greek thought, Aristotle conceived necessity and chance to be fundamentally the same, and the Greek custom of drawing lots shows the universality of the notion.

5. Aristotle’s Conception of Nature. Nature is therefore to Aristotle a far more complex world than Plato had conceived it. Nature has a double character to Aristotle, as his twofold conception of causation shows. Nature is composed of mechanical and teleological causes. Purpose and necessity are the two principles of motion in the world, and in this twofold conception of causation did Aristotle reconcile Plato and Democritus. However much Aristotle concedes to the Democritan idea ofmechanical necessity, it is evident that in his conception of nature the principle of teleology predominates over the mechanical. The highest actuality is God, and he is a final or teleological cause; and all results of value in nature come through final causes. Final causes are primary causes; mechanical causes are secondary causes. There would be no motion whatever in the universe but for the highest final cause, God. Yet God is the unmoved mover, and matter cannot move itself. Motion occurs because matter feels the impulse to form itself like God. How different this Aristotelian conception of nature from our modern scientific conception of an impersonal nature under a mechanical causation that is universal! The teleological conception of nature and natural events was very strongly intrenched in the human mind during the Middle Ages, and was not dislodged easily by modern investigation. Nature was a living thing to Aristotle. It was at once intrinsically spontaneous, and self-determined and uniform. Its spontaneity was not that of capricious chance. Its uniformity was that of purpose and end.On the other hand, the Aristotelian conception of nature is not the same as either the Christian doctrine of created nature or Darwin’s theory of evolution. The world of Aristotle had always existed; it is a limited world in space, but not in time. Also the divine reason always existed in it. Yet its evolution is not a progressive climbing sort, like the Darwinian, in which new species evolve. It means only that there is a relationship of rank and value among nature objects. Nature is a unity. Teleological change occurs within it.

Nature is therefore a connected system of living beings in the process of development from Form to Form, approximating the Deity and existing as thepotentiality of the Deity. There is a graded scale of things of relative worth. But the double standard of estimating the worth of nature-objects—that of mechanical necessity and that of teleological cause—makes two different series, which find their union only at the end in God. From our foregoing description of the nature of God, it will be seen that he has two essential characteristics: he is Being who ever rests within himself and remains like himself; and he is a pure reason. He therefore combines in himself the two nature series in their most ideal character. Nature-objects in the series of mechanical necessity have as their ideal character just that uniformity, regularity, and order that we find in the abiding Being of God. The greater the uniformity, the more nearly like God. Nature-objects, in the teleological series, have as their ideal characteristic the reason of God. The more nearly rational such a living being is, the more nearly is it like God. In the one line the series of phenomena ascends from the disorder of the terrestrial universe to the absolute uniformity of the stars, which are close to God. In the other line the series ascends in teleological values from the mechanical and vegetative characteristics of organisms to their rational activity. Both series terminate in God. The stars have rational intelligence and the most uniform motions. Aristotle conceived Physics as the science that includes the first series, and the second series he conceived to be included by Psychology, Ethics, and Politics.

The Mechanical Series,—Aristotle’s Theory of Physics. The general astronomical assumptions of the time determined Aristotle’s theory of the physical world. He adopted the old Pythagorean conception ofthe limited world-all: a hollow sphere made up of concentric crystalline spheres. In opposition to the Pythagoreans, he conceived the earth at the centre. It is spherical and stationary. Around it the crystalline spheres revolve, in which the moon, sun, five planets, and fixed stars are placed. The fixed stars are in the rim of the great sphere, are outside all, and are nearest therefore to God, who animates all. God as it were holds the world-all in the hollow of his hand. He moves the whole, which in turn moves the fifty-five concentric crystal spheres within. The principle of the movement of fixed stars is that of the Deity, while the principle of the other spheres is that of the spirits which reside in them. The movement of the planets have an influence upon terrestrial life. Aristotle made the usual Pythagorean division between the celestial and the terrestrial parts of the world-all, which has had so much influence upon theology. The motion of the world-all is most perfect, being a circle; its form is most perfect, being a sphere. The celestial part of this world-all, which is the region lying near the periphery, is most like God. The motion of this heaven is circular, and it is the place of uniformity, perfectness, and changeableness. The stars do not change nor pass away. They are superhuman beings, who in their regularity are like the blessed gods. The terrestrial part of the world-all below the moon has motions in straight lines. This is the theatre of imperfection and irregularity, of increase and diminution.

There are many interesting discussions by Aristotle upon particular physical matters, such as space, time, the elements. His conception of motion shows how the series of uniform nature-motions lead up to the secondseries of teleological values. In nature there are three kinds of motion: change of place (mechanical); change in quality (chemical); change in substance (organic). While change of place is the lowest kind of motion, it is necessary to chemical and organic changes. Yet Aristotle refuses to allow that qualitative changes can be reduced to quantitative changes, but maintains that quality is self-subsistent. Organic change, or change in substance, on the contrary, has a higher Form of reality than the lower changes. This stand taken by Aristotle, in refusing to reduce qualitative to quantitative determinations, shows how comprehensive and sane a scientist he was. It introduces us to a psychology and an ethics that are intimately linked to physics, and at the same time have realms of their own. Let us now turn to the series of qualitative nature changes, or to psychology, ethics, and politics.