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Plato and Aristotle on God

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Aristotle * Aristotle was born in 384 BC. 14 Years after the death of Socrates. His father was court physician to the king of Macedon. * At the age of 18 he entered Plato’s academy at Athens. (Plato was 60 years old) Aristotle remained in the academy until Plato’s death. * Aristotle became tutor to the son of King of Macedon who then became Alexander the great. * Aristotle rejected almost everything that Plato had argued – in particular the existence of forms, he said that human beings needed to work out what was good or bad or right and wrong by looking at the world as it was. * Aristotle and Plato both had huge influence for more than 2000 years of history but Aristotle had the greatest!
Aristotle classified many types of animals and plants and considered that each member of different species and every living thing shared a distinct nature. Something was good if it fulfilled its nature and it was defective if it was not what it was intended to be. * Considered that a good human being fulfils the nature which is shared by all human beings. * Therefore, what it is to be good depends on knowing what it is to be human and * This can only be worked out by studying humans to understand what human nature is.
For Aristotle something was good if it fulfilled its nature. Evil he held is not a positive thing at all. Evil is merely an absent of good, something suffers from evil if it is missing a good that should be present.

Aristotle on God.
Aristotle argued that the universe was everlasting, it had no beginning and no end therefore the universe was not created; it has always existed. * Aristotle held that the Earth was the centre of the universe and round the earth, in 40 concentric rings, were set the stars.
He thought that the circle was the perfect shape and therefore, the stars had to revolve in perfect, circular orbits. The first ring of stars were moved by the second and so on till the 40th, and God caused the 40th ring to move – but Aristotles god did nothing * God did not create * God did not sustain the universe in existence * God did not act in the universe * God had no interest in the universe
But god caused the fourtieth ring to move!!!!
GOD IS THE GREAT ATTRACTOR
God attracts the outer ring of stars and therefor causes movement in this outer ring even though God does nothing. * God does nothing at all but he is supremely happy because god contemplates himself. Aristotle considered contemplation to be the highest end (route to perfect happiness.) * God being supremely perfect would have no interest in the universe. * Aristotle considered God being out of space and outside of time, God was spaceless and timeless – he was radically different from anything in this universe.

Plato on God.
Plato considered that there was different levels of reality. 1. World of perfect ideas or forms. Perfect forms of Good, Justice, and truth exist beyond time and space. These were not created by god nor do they do anything – They are just there. 2. Secondly, there is raw and chaotic matter. Matter without any principle at all. It is chaotic matter which is always changing (things in this universe) It is simply there – not created and has always existed. 3. Plato’s God called THE DEMIURGE.
The demiurge acts like a sculptor – he brings orders out of chaos. * He takes the raw matter which he did not create and sculpts it to make the universe, he uses the perfect forms as a model. * Neither the forms or the chaotic matter are crwated by the demiurge.
Plato thinks the demiurge faced 2 problems: 1. The chaotic matter resisted the will of the demiurge. Because of its very nature, the universe for which the matter is formed can never be perfect or form a perfect universe. The universe is always flawed because it is made of pre-existent chaotic matter. 2. The universe is in space and time and therefore is constantly changing. Plato thought that only things that are unchanging can be perfect, so it follows that the universe is unchanging.
The demiurge is not all loving or all powerful, personal god like the God of Christianity. More importantly the Demiurge is NOT supreme – it is the perfect forms that are supreme and these provide the basis for all morality.

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