(Metaph. XII. 7), “that which has circular motion;” is to be posited as
the true Being, “and this is evident not merely from thinking reason,
but also from the fact itself.” From the definition of absolute Being
as imparting motion, as bringing about realization, there follows that
it exists in objectivity in visible nature. As the self-identical
which is visible, this absolute Being is “the eternal heavens.” The
two modes of representing the Absolute are thus thinking reason and
the eternal heavens. The heavens are moved, but they also cause
movement. Since the spherical is thus both mover and moved, there is
a centre-point which causes movement but remains unmoved, and which
is itself at the same time eternal and a substance and energy.[90]
This great definition given by Aristotle of absolute Being as the
circle of reason which returns into itself, is of the same tenor as
modern definitions; the unmoved which causes movement is the Idea which
remains self-identical, which, while it moves, remains in relation to
itself. He explains this as follows: “Its motion is determined in the
following manner. That moves which is desired and thought, whereas
itself it is unmoved, and the original of both is the same.” That is
the end whose content is the desire and thought; such an end is the
Beautiful or the Good. “For the thing that is desired is that which
appears beautiful” (or pleases): “whose first” (or end), “on which the
will is set, is what is beautiful. But it is rather the case that we
desire it because it appears beautiful, than that it appears beautiful
because we desire it.” For if that were so, it would be simply posited
by activity, but it is posited independently, as objective Being,
through which our desire is first awakened. “But thought is the true
principle in this, for thought is moved only by the object of thought.
But the intelligible” (we scarcely believe our eyes) “is essentially
the other co-element (συστοιχία)”[91] namely, that which is posited
as objective, as absolutely existent thought, “and the substance of
this other element is the first; but the first substance is simple
pure activity. Such are the Beautiful and the Good, and the first is
ever the absolutely best or the best possible. But the Notion shows
that the final cause belongs to the unmoved. What is moved may also
subsist in a different manner. Motion (φορά) is the first change; the
first motion, again, is circular motion, but this is due to the above
cause.” Therefore, according to Aristotle, the Notion, _principium
cognoscendi_, is also that which causes movement, _principium essendi_;
he expresses it as God, and shows the relation of God to the individual
consciousness. “The First Cause is necessary. But the term necessary
has three meanings: first what is accomplished by violence, because
it goes contrary to one’s inclination (παρὰ τὴν ὁρμήν); secondly,
that without which the Good does not subsist; thirdly, that which can
exist in no other way than it does, but involves absolute existence.
On such a principle of the unmoved the heavens depend and the whole of
nature”—the visible that is eternal, and the visible that changes. This
system is ever-enduring. “But to us” as individuals, “there is granted,
for a short time only, a sojourn therein of surpassing excellence. For
the system continues ever the same, but for us that is impossible. Now
this activity is in its very self enjoyment, and therefore vigilance,
exercise of the senses, thinking in general, are most productive of
enjoyment; and for the same reason hopes and memories bring pleasure.
But thinking, in its pure essence, is a thinking of that which is
absolutely the most excellent;” the thought is for itself absolute
end. The difference and contradiction in activity and the abrogation
of the same, Aristotle expresses thus: “But thought thinks itself
by participation (μετάληψιν) in that which is thought, but thought
becomes thought by contact and apprehension, so that thought and the
object of thought are the same.” Thought, as being the unmoved which
causes motion, has an object, which, however, becomes transformed into
activity, because its content is itself something thought, _i.e._ a
product of thought, and thus altogether identical with the activity of
thinking. The object of thought is first produced in the activity of
thinking, which in this way separates the thought as an object. Hence,
in thinking, that which is moved and that which moves are the same;
and as the substance of what is thought is thought, what is thought
is the absolute cause which, itself unmoved, is identical with the
thought which is moved by it; the separation and the relation are one
and the same. The chief moment in Aristotle’s philosophy is accordingly
this, that the energy of thinking and the object of thought are the
same; “for thought is that which is receptive of objects of perception
and the existent. When in possession of these it is in a condition
of activity (ἐνεργεῖ δὲ ἔχων); and thus all this” operation by which
it thinks itself, “is more divine than the divine possession which
thinking reason supposes itself to have,”—the content of thought. It
is not the object of thought that is the more excellent, but the very
energy of thinking; the activity of apprehension brings that to pass
which appears as something that is being apprehended. “Speculation
(ἡ θεωρία) is thus the most pleasing and the best. If then God has
eternally subsisted in such surpassing excellence as for a limited time
pertains to us” (in whom this eternal Thought, which is God Himself,
occurs only as a particular condition), “He is worthy of admiration;
if He possesses it in a more eminent degree, His nature is still more
admirable. But this is His mode of subsistence. Life is also inherent
in Him, for the activity of thought is life. But He constitutes this
efficient power; essential energy belongs to God as His most excellent
and eternal life. We therefore say that with God there is life perfect
and everlasting.” From this substance Aristotle moreover excludes
magnitude.
We in our way of speaking designate the Absolute, the True, as the
unity of subjectivity and objectivity, which is therefore neither the
one nor the other, and yet just as much the one as the other; and
Aristotle busied himself with these same speculations, the deepest
forms of speculation even of the present day, and he has expressed
them with the greatest definiteness. With Aristotle it is thus no
dry identity of the abstract understanding that is indicated, for he
distinguishes subjective and objective precisely and decisively. Not
dead identity such as this, but energy, is for him what is most to
be reverenced, God. Unity is thus a poor, unphilosophic expression,
and true Philosophy is not the system of identity; its principle is
a unity which is activity, movement, repulsion, and thus, in being
different, is at the same time identical with itself. If Aristotle
had made the jejune identity of understanding, or experience, his
principle, he would never have risen to a speculative Idea like this,
wherein individuality and activity are placed higher than universal
potentiality. Thought, as the object of thought, is nothing else than
the absolute Idea regarded as in itself, the Father; yet this First
and unmoved, as distinguished from activity, is, as absolute, simply
activity, and is first through this activity set forth as true. In
what he teaches respecting the soul we shall find Aristotle recurring
to this speculative thought; but to Aristotle it is again an object,
like other objects, a kind of condition which he separates from the
other conditions of the soul which he understands empirically, such as
sleep, or weariness. He does not say that it alone is truth, that all
is summed up in Thought, but he says it is the first, the strongest,
the most honourable. We, on the other hand, say that Thought, as that
which relates to itself, has existence, or is the truth; that Thought
comprehends the whole of Truth, even, though we ordinarily represent
to ourselves sensation and so on, besides thought, as having reality.
Thus, although Aristotle does not express himself in modern philosophic
language, he has yet throughout the same fundamental theory; he speaks
not of a special kind of reason, but of the universal Reason. The
speculative philosophy of Aristotle simply means the direction of
thought on all kinds of objects, thus transforming these into thoughts;
hence, in being thoughts, they exist in truth. The meaning of this is
not, however, that natural objects have thus themselves the power of
thinking, but as they are subjectively thought by me, my thought is
thus also the Notion of the thing, which therefore constitutes its
absolute substance. But in Nature the Notion does not exist explicitly
as thought in this freedom, but has flesh and blood, and is oppressed
by externalities; yet this flesh and blood has a soul, and this is its
Notion. The ordinary definition of truth, according to which it is “the
harmony of the conception with the object,” is certainly not borne out
by the conception; for when I represent to myself a house, a beam, and
so on, I am by no means this content, but something entirely different,
and therefore very far from being in harmony with the object of my
conception. It is only in thought that there is present a true harmony
between objective and subjective; that constitutes me. Aristotle
therefore finds himself at the highest standpoint; nothing deeper can
we desire to know, although he has always the appearance of making
ordinary conceptions his starting-point.
Aristotle (Metaph. XII. 9) now solves many other doubtful questions,
for instance, whether thought is compound, and whether science is the
object of science itself. “Some further doubts arise as to thought
(νοῦς), which seems to be of all things the most divine; but it is
only with difficulty that we can conceive under what conditions (πῶς
δ̓ ἔχων) it is a thing of this sort. When it thinks of nothing, but is
in a state like that of a sleeper, what constitutes its superiority?
And when it thinks, but something else is dominant all the time (ἄλλο
κύριον), that which is its substance is not thought (νόησις), but
a potentiality;” it would not be in eternal activity. “In this way
it would not be the highest substance; for it is” (active) “thought
(τὸ νοεῖν) that gives it its high rank. If now, further, thought or
thinking is its substance, what does it think? Itself or another? And
if another, is it always the same, or something different? Does it also
not make a difference, whether it thinks of what is beautiful or what
is casual? In the first place, if thought is not thinking, but only
the power to think, continuous thinking would be laborious for it,”
for every power wears itself out. “In the next place, something else
would be more excellent than thought, namely that which is thought
(νοούμενον); and thinking and thought (τὸ νοεῖν καὶ ἡ νόησις) will be
present to the mind in understanding what is most inferior. As this
is to be avoided (in the same way that it is better not to see some
things than to see them), thinking would not constitute the best.
Thought is therefore this, to think itself, because it is the most
excellent; and it is the thinking, which is the thinking of thinking.
For understanding and sensation and opinion and deliberation seem
always to have an object other than themselves, and to be their own
objects only in a secondary sense. Further, if thinking and being
thought of are different, in relation to which of the two is the Good
inherent in thought? For the Notion[92] of thinking and that of the
object of thought are not the same. Or, in the case of some things,
does the science itself constitute that which is the object of science?
In what is practical the thing is the immaterial substance and the
determination of the end (ἡ οὐσία καὶ τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι), and in what is
theoretical it is the reason and the thinking. As therefore thought and
the object of thought are not different, these opposites, so far as
they involve no connection with matter, are the same thing, and there
is only a thought of the thing thought of.” Reason which thinks itself,
is the absolute end or the Good, for it only exists for its own sake.
“There still remains a doubt whether that which thinks is of composite
nature or not; for it might undergo change in the parts of the whole.
But the Good is not in this or that part, for it is the best in the
universe, as distinguished from it. In this way the Thought which is
its own object subsists to all eternity.”
As this speculative Idea, which is the best and most free, is also to
be seen in nature, and not only in thinking reason, Aristotle (Metaph.
XII. 8) in this connection passes on to the visible God, which is the
heavens. God, as living God, is the universe; and thus in the universe
God, as living God, shows Himself forth. He comes forth as manifesting
Himself or as causing motion, and it is in manifestation alone that
the difference between the cause of motion and that which is moved
comes to pass. “The principle and the first cause of that which is, is
itself unmoved, but brings to pass the original and eternal and single
motion,” that is, the heaven of the fixed stars. “We see that besides
the simple revolution of the universe, which is brought about by the
first unmoved substance, there are other eternal motions, those of the
planets.” We must not, however, enter into further details on this
subject.
Regarding the organization of the universe in general, Aristotle says
(Metaph. XII. 10), “We must investigate in what manner the nature of
the whole has within it the Good and the Best; whether as something set
apart and absolute, or as an order, or in both ways, as in the case
of an army. For the good condition of an army depends upon the order
enforced, as much as on the general, and the general is the cause of
the army’s good condition in all the greater degree from the fact of
the order being through him, and not from his being through the order.
All things are co-ordinated in a certain way, but not all in the same
way: take, for example, animals which swim, and those which fly, and
plants; they are not so constituted that one of them is not related to
another, but they stand in mutual relations. For all are co-ordinated
into one system just as in a house it is by no means permitted to the
free inmates to do freely whatever they like, but all that they do, or
the most of it, is done according to orderly arrangement. By slaves and
animals, on the contrary, little is done for the general good, but they
do much that is casual. For the principle of each is his own nature.
In the same way it is necessary that all should attain to a position
where distinction is drawn” (the seat of judgment) “but there are some
things so constituted that all participate in them for the formation
of a whole.” Aristotle then goes on to refute some other notions;
showing, for instance, the embarrassments into which they fall who make
all things proceed from oppositions, and he corroborates, on the other
hand, the unity of the principle by quoting Homer’s line (Iliad II.
204):
“It is not good that many govern; let one alone bear rule.”
2. PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE.
Amongst the special sciences treated by Aristotle, the Physics is
contained in a whole series of physical treatises, which form a
tolerably complete system of what constitutes the Philosophy of
Nature in its whole extent. We shall try to give their general plan.
Aristotle’s first work is his Treatise, in eight books, on Physics, or
on the Principles (φυσικὴ ἀκρόασις ἢ περὶ ἀρχῶν). In this he deals,
as is fitting, with the doctrine of the Notion of nature generally,
with movement, and with space and time. The first manifestation of
absolute substance is movement, and its moments are space and time;
this conception of its manifestation is the universal, which realizes
itself first in the corporeal world, passing into the principle of
separation. Aristotle’s Physics is what for present physicists would,
properly speaking, be the Metaphysics of Nature; for our physicists
only say what they have seen, what delicate and excellent instruments
they have made, and not what they have thought. This first work by
Aristotle is followed by his treatises concerning the Heavens, which
deal with the nature of body and the first real bodies, the earth and
heavenly bodies in general, as also with the general abstract relation
of bodies to one another through mechanical weight and lightness, or
what we should call attraction; and finally, with the determination
of abstract real bodies or elements. Then follow the treatises on
Production and Destruction, the physical process of change, while
formerly the ideal process of movement was considered. Besides the
physical elements, moments which are only posited in process, as such,
now enter in: for instance, warmth, cold, &c. Those elements are the
real existent facts, while these determinations are the moments of
becoming or of passing away, which exist only in movement. Then comes
the Meteorology; it represents the universal physical process in its
most real forms. Here particular determinations appear, such as rain,
the saltness of the sea, clouds, dew, hail, snow, hoar-frost, winds,
rainbows, boiling, cooking, roasting, colours, &c. On certain matters,
such as the colours, Aristotle wrote particular treatises. Nothing is
forgotten, and yet the presentation is, on the whole, empiric. The book
On the Universe, which forms the conclusion, is said not to be genuine;
it is a separate dissertation, addressed to Alexander, which contains
in part the doctrine of the universality of things, a doctrine found
already in the other treatises; hence this book does not belong to this
series.
From this point Aristotle proceeds to organic nature, and here his
works not only contain a natural history, but also a physiology and
anatomy. To the anatomy pertain his works on the Locomotion of Animals,
and on the Parts of Animals. He deals with physiology in the works
on the Generation of Animals, on the common Movement of Animals; and
then he comes to the distinction between Youth and Age, Sleeping and
Waking, and treats of Breathing, Dreaming, the Shortness and Length
of Life, &c., all of which he deals with partly in an empiric,
and partly in a more speculative manner. Finally, there comes the
History of Animals, not merely as a history of Nature, but also as
the history of the animal in its entirety—what we may call a kind of
physiologico-anatomical anatomy. There is likewise a botanical work On
Plants (περὶ φυτῶν) which is ascribed to him. Thus we here find natural
philosophy in the whole extent of its outward content.
As regards this plan, there is no question that this is not the
necessary order in which natural philosophy or physics must be treated.
It is long since physics adopted in its conception the form and
tendency derived from Aristotle, of deducing the parts of the science
from the whole; and thus even what is not speculative still retains
this connection as far as outward order goes. This is plainly to be
preferred to the arrangement in our modern text-books, which is a
wholly irrational succession of doctrines accidentally put together,
and is undoubtedly more suitable to that method of contemplating
nature, which grasps the sensuous manifestation of nature quite
irrespective of sense or reason. Physics before this contained some
metaphysics, but the experience which was met with in endeavouring
unsuccessfully to work it out, determined the physicists, so far as
possible, to keep it at a distance, and to devote their attention to
what they call experience, for they think that here they come across
genuine truth, unspoiled by thought, fresh from the hand of nature;
it is in their hands and before their faces. They can certainly not
dispense with the Notion, but through a kind of tacit agreement they
allow certain conceptions, such as forces, subsistence in parts, &c.,
to be valid, and make use of these without in the least knowing whether
they have truth and how they have truth. But in regard to the content
they express no better the truth of things, but only the sensuous
manifestation. Aristotle and the ancients understand by physics, on the
other hand, the comprehension of nature—the universal; and for this
reason Aristotle also calls it the doctrine of principles. For in the
manifestation of nature this distinction between the principle and what
follows it, manifestation, really commences, and it is abrogated only
in genuine speculation. Yet if, on the one hand, what is physical in
Aristotle is mainly philosophic and not experimental, he yet proceeded
in his Physics in what may be called an empiric way. Thus, as it has
been already remarked of the Aristotelian philosophy in general that
the different parts fall into a series of independently determined
conceptions, so we find that this is the case here also; hence an
account can only be given of a part of them. One part is not universal
enough to embrace the other part, for each is independent. But that
which follows, and which has in great measure reference to what is
individual, no longer comes under the dominion of the Notion, but
becomes a superficial suggestion of reasons, and an explanation from
the proximate causes, such as we find in our physics.
In regard to the general conception of nature, we must say that
Aristotle represents it in the highest and truest manner. For in
the Idea of nature Aristotle (Phys. II. 8) really relies on two
determinations: the conception of end and the conception of necessity.
Aristotle at once grasps the whole matter in its principles, and this
constitutes the old contradiction and divergence of view existing
between necessity (_causæ efficientes_) and end (_causæ finales_),
which we have inherited. The first mode of consideration is that in
accordance with external necessity, which is the same as chance—the
conception that all that pertains to nature is determined from without
by means of natural causes. The other mode of consideration is the
teleological, but conformity to end is either inward or outward, and
in the more recent culture the latter has long retained the supremacy.
Thus men vibrate in their opinion between these two points of view,
seek external causes, and war against the form of an external teleology
which places the end outside of nature. These determinations were
known to Aristotle, and he thoroughly investigates them and considers
what they are and mean. Aristotle’s conception of nature is, however,
nobler than that of to-day, for with him the principal point is the
determination of end as the inward determinateness of natural things.
Thus he comprehended nature as life, _i.e._ as that which has its
end within itself, is unity with itself, which does not pass into
another, but, through this principle of activity, determines changes
in conformity with its own content, and in this way maintains itself
therein. In this doctrine Aristotle has before his eyes the inward
immanent end, to which he considers necessity an external condition.
Thus, on the one hand, Aristotle determines nature as the final cause,
which is to be distinguished from what is luck or chance; it is thus
opposed by him to what is necessary, which it also contains within
itself; and then he considers how necessity is present in natural
things. In nature we usually think of necessity first, and understand
as the essentially natural that which is not determined through end.
For long men thought that they determined nature both philosophically
and truly in limiting it to necessity. But the aspect of nature has
had a stigma removed from it, because, by means of its conformity to
the end in view, it is elevated above the commonplace. The two moments
which we have considered in substance, the active form and matter,
correspond with these two determinations.