Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Potentiality, Actuality, God

One fundamental distinction between Plato and Aristotle concerns the relation between Potentiality and Actuality--Plato regards the former as prior, Aristotle, the converse.  Hence, for example, either incorporeal Forms are the transcendent basis of corporeal entities, or else, conversely, are mere mental abstractions from them.  Now, while Augustine is usually classified as the prototypical 'Platonist' Christian, Aquinas is typically posited as his 'Aristotelian' counterpart.  However, Aquinas agrees with Augustine that God is the transcendent incorporeal source of all corporeal entities.  Hence, in that respect, at the least, he is just as much a 'Platonist' as his Medieval predecessor.  Indeed, perhaps the only significant truly Aristotelian in the Western theological tradition may be Spinoza, though his idea of an eternal essence of a human body is a Platonist element in his system.

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