Friday, January 5, 2018

Omniscience and Omnipotence

Because Aristotle's deity is perpetually active Mind, it might be better characterized as 'self-moving', rather than his "unmoved".  Regardless, its internal dynamic is distinct from the Causality by virtue of which it is the "mover" of everything else--the "desire" of the moved for it.  Now, such Teleological Causality is clearer in the case of the entity whose enjoyments of mental activity are sporadic and finite than it is in the case of any entity with no obvious mental experience, e. g. an orbiting celestial body.  Instead, that the equivalence of Knowledge and Power is entailed, as has been previously discussed, in Aristotle's concept of Active Mind, suggests a different concept of Deity.  For, it follows that Omniscience and Omnipotence are also equivalent, so, the Deity that possesses them can create an object merely by thinking it--capacity that is surely desired by the lesser entities who must toil, with no guarantee of success, to actualize its objects.  Plus, that Deity is still the creator of any entity, e. g. a planet, that might lack such desire.  So it is debatable that his deity is supreme in the terms of his system.

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