Sunday, August 20, 2017

Circle, Teleology, Evolution

For Aristotle, circular motion is a characteristic of divinity because it is complete, i. e. "perfect", and in a Teleological system, completion is the highest attainment.  But, as surely the author of Prior Analytics is aware, not all Circles are so exalted, e. g. that of the fallacious reasoning of Question-Begging.  Regardless, as Bergson observes, in an Evolutionary system, the repetition of a completion can be the expression of "torpor", i. e. arrested development.  In contrast, the image of Evolutionary divinity might be the ever-widening spiral, which combines completion, advance, and increase in complexity.  Thus, just as Evolutionism refutes the Aristotelian thesis that species are fixed, it overrides the supremacy of the Circle.

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