Aristotle on God (A History of Western Thought 17)

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This is part 17 of the History of Western Thought series. In this video, I discuss Aristotle's view of God, especially as it relates to the Christian idea of God.

[@halo0360]

Great video Dr. Cooper!

[@toddvoss52]

Very succinct and yet covering the key points.

[@morganophelia5963]

dude if i ever did go to college i would be a theology /history /philosophy ..like a theological (Christian) philosophy and history specifically western civ .. although i would do a world history course too .. probably

[@user-qh4dr1vy9d]

There's an argument saying that through God thinking about himself He indirectly takes care of the world. Something along these lines.

[@dave1370]

It's interesting how it seems that Aristotle did not consider a desire to rescue your fallen creation a perfect thought or attribute of God.

[@luked2982]

@@AristotleAgainstPlato It seems curious that, as this video relates Aristotle's position, everything arises from God as the ultimate source, and since God is spirit contemplating itself, it would seem that everything arises from God's self-contemplation (being the action of God). I have heard that Aristotle does not believe that evil is a concretely existing thing but an absence of the good, though I am not certain about this, but it would seem that from the notion of Aristotle's God explained here, even imperfect or bad things would be caused by God's self-contemplation. Doesn't that seem somehow contradictory of a perfect being? Would appreciate some views on this, even Christian views not of Aristotle's notion of God.

[@allangilchrist5938]

So Aristotle's God is the ultimate narcissist thinking only about himself?

[@GodlessCommie]

To be fair, I haven’t heard of a many gods that aren’t narcissistic

[@theletterm5425]

Was is controversial for Aristotle to hold these views seeing as they do seem to diverge from Classical Greek religion? Or was religious orthodoxy not as strongly enforced during Aristotle's time?

[@popemon7608]

Not exactly. Most pagans acknowledge some sort of highest god in their pantheon. Aristotle also acknowledges that the lower gods exist as well, and favors some sort of worship of them. He does follow Socrates in being suspicious or hostile towards many of the Greek myths about the gods, especially interpreted non-allegorically. He's not going to put up with stories of Zeus raping women for fun. This is what in part led to the accusations at Socrates's trial that he was an athiest; he didn't like much of popular Greek religion, which isn't to say he rejected it whole cloth

[@theletterm5425]

@@popemon7608Thanks for your answer! I don't know every much about ancient Greence but I‘m quite interested in the topic and your comment just helped me learn a little bit more about it. So thanks!

[@Blackbeard0791]

There was a spread of beliefs across Polytheists. Most Polytheists aren’t mythic literalists. Aristotle was still very much a Polytheist. His will included instruction to erect statues to both Zeus and Athena.

[@user-df8qr8ur3s]

Don’t you see the problem in the fact that Aristotle says that everything exists through the relation of matter and form, and at the same time writes about a pure form - God, he doesn’t make an exception anywhere, he has a clear contradiction here, why are you talking about this was not mentioned. Form for Aristotle is something inseparable from matter, but God for Aristotle is spirit, pure reality.

[@FalconOfStorms]

M O R E

[@villarrealmarta6103]

Sinful man outside of scripture contemplating what the greatest good is? Never going to end well. The human heart is only evil all the time Genesis 6:5