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The unmoved mover (Ancient Greek: ὃ οὐ κινούμενον κινεῖ, romanized: ho ou kinoúmenon kineî, lit. 'that which moves without being moved') [ 1 ] or prime mover ( Latin : primum movens ) is a concept advanced by Aristotle as a primary cause (or first uncaused cause ) [ 2 ] or " mover " of all the motion in the universe . [ 3 ]
the argument from "first mover"; the argument from universal causation; the argument from contingency; the argument from degree; the argument from final cause or ends ("teleological argument"). Aquinas expands the first of these – God as the "unmoved mover" – in his Summa Contra Gentiles. [1]
An unmoved mover is assumed for each sphere, including a "prime mover" for the sphere of fixed stars. The unmoved movers do not push the spheres (nor could they, being immaterial and dimensionless) but are the final cause of the spheres' motion, i.e. they explain it in a way that's similar to the explanation "the soul is moved by beauty".
In short, Prime Mover and “the Unmoved Mover” are synonymous, they both refer to a particular unmoved mover that is most certainly not the first in a temporal, but rather a logical sense. More figuratively, the first moved , corresponding to the starry sphere or later Primum movens celestial sphere, could be called superior, outermost or ...
The unmoved movers inspiring the planetary spheres are no different in kind from the prime mover, they merely suffer a dependency of relation to the prime mover. Correspondingly, the motions of the planets are subordinate to the motion inspired by the prime mover in the sphere of fixed stars.
Aristotle proposed the existence of divine unmoved movers which act as final causes; the celestial spheres mimic the movers, as best they could, by moving with uniform circular motion. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] In his Metaphysics , Aristotle maintained that an individual unmoved mover would be required to insure each individual motion in the heavens.
Thomas's five proofs for the existence of God take some of Aristotle's assertions concerning the principles of being. For God as prima causa ("first cause") comes from Aristotle's concept of the unmoved mover and asserts that God is the ultimate cause of all things. [129]
This was based largely upon Plotinus' reading of Plato, but also incorporated many Aristotelian concepts, including the unmoved mover as energeia. [42] They also incorporated a theory of anamnesis, or knowledge coming from the past lives of our immortal souls, like that found in some of Plato's dialogues.