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{"id":18010,"date":"2016-04-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=2822"},"modified":"2016-04-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T00:00:00","slug":"de-aristotelianizing-plato","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/04\/de-aristotelianizing-plato\/","title":{"rendered":"De-Aristotelianizing Plato"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The latter view, van Riel argues, is based on Aristotelian premises. In this outlook, \u201cmetaphysics and theology converge on the idea that the highest being (god) is the ultimate instance in which all principles of being are present in the purest way. In Aristotelian metaphysics, god is pure act, pure form, self-thinking thought (as the highest performance of the highest possible activity), and the final cause of the universe.\u201d Thus, \u201cgod is the cornerstone of metaphysics, the principle that holds an entire universe together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Van Riel proposes to de-Aristotelianize Plato: \u201cPlato was surely the first to establish firm metaphysical views, based o n his theory of forms and culminating in the inaccessible Form of the Good.\u201d But this metaphysics remained distinct from Plato\u2019s theology. For Plato, \u201cgods are not metaphysical principles. They constitute a multitude of divine souls, each of whom has the specific task of looking after (part of) the sensible world.\u201d Following Xenophanes and others, Plato aims to purify the vulgar notion, insisting on the moral excellence of the gods, such that \u201cthe order of the world is the expression of a goodness that sets itself forth in the moral conduct of gods and human beings.\u201d <\/p>\n

Cosmology, theology, and ethics thus converge, but are distinguished from Platonic metaphysics, which runs along different tracks.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"