Monday, September 11, 2017

Deity, Simplicity, Complexity

Generally well-recognized is that Evolution disproves Aristotle's thesis that Species are fixed.  But, it also constitutes a more fundamental repudiation of Aristotelianism. For, in attributing Simplicity to his deity, he, at the same time, deifies Simplicity.  Accordingly, that the Telos of the universe is that deity, is equivalent to the principle that Simplicity is the highest value.  Thus, Darwin's discovery of a transition from less complex organisms to more complex organisms, e. g. via the emergence of a more versatile thumb, at minimum, inverts the Aristotelian conatus, and, thus, the Aristotelian value system, even if that conatus is not conceived as Teleological.  Now, because Evolution is an indefinite process, the theories that espouse it offer no concept of a maximum entity.  But Aristotle does--his deity is the periphery of the Cosmos, which it therefore encompasses.  However, he abstracts the circumference from the rest of the circle, thereby reducing the entity that occupies it to Simplicity.  That abstraction, because arbitrary, exposes his prejudice for Simplicity, the real deity of his system.

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