ARISTOTLE

 

Aristotle, writing in his Metaphysics said;

“Accordingly, a Divine Mind Knows Itself, since it is the supreme excellence and its intelligence is the intelligence of the intellect.”[1]

 

Which is the basis of much later discussion. He then goes on to define the subject;

“Is not everything indivisible which is immaterial? Hence, even the human mind, or rather that of composite beings, is at times aware of its supreme and enduring good, not that good of this or that moment, but something quite different, so throughout eternity is that mind which Knows Itself.”[2]

 

 

Inquiry Into Mind.[3]

 

The first mover is a necessary being; that is, it is well that it is necessary, and thus it is a first principle. For necessity is attributed not only to what is necessary by compulsion because contrary to impulse but also to that without which there can be no good and to that which simply cannot be otherwise.

 

On such a principle, accordingly, the heavens and nature depend. It is a life such as ours is in its best moments. It is always at its best, though for us this is impossible. The first mover’s action is enjoyable, even as we, too, most enjoy being awake, conscious and thinking, whence come the joys of hope and memory. Thus, knowing by its very nature, concerns what is inherently best; and knowing in the truest sense concerns what is best in the truest sense.[4]

 

It is evident, then, that the movers are primary beings and that one of them is first and another is second according to the order of the stellar movements. But the inquiry into the number of these movements must depend upon that mathematical science which is most akin to philosophy, upon astronomy; for this science examines the kind of primary being which is sensible, but eternal, whereas the others, such as arithmetic and geometry, do not deal with primary being. [5]

 

Now, it is evident that there is but one sky. For even if there were many heavens, as there are many men, the principle governing each would be uniform, though numerically many. But all things that are numerically many have a material for the definition of such beings, for example man, is one and the same for all, whereas the material Socrates is unique. But being’s first essential character contains no material, since it is complete actuality. Accordingly, the unmoved first mover is one both in definition and in number; accordingly, what is first moved is always and continuously one, and there is but one sky.

 

However, our ancestors in the remotest ages have handed down to their posterity traditions in mythical form that these celestial bodies are gods and that the divine encompasses the whole of nature... But if we take only the first essential point, that the primary beings are traditionally held to be gods, we may acknowledge that this has been divinely said and that, though arts and philosophy may have been often explored and perfected, but lost, these myths and others have been preserved to the present day [300 B.C.] like ancient relics.

 

The inquiry into mind is fraught with certain difficulties; for although the mind is held to be the most divine of anything within our ken, the question of how it is so contains many riddles.[6]

 

 

A Divine Mind Knows Itself

 

Accordingly, a divine mind Knows Itself, since it is the supreme excellence; and its intelligence is the intelligence of intellect.

 

However, knowledge and perception and opinion and reason appear to be always of something else and only incidentally of themselves. And if knowing and being known are different, in which of these ways is knowledge a kind of well-being? Though knowing and being known are not the same thing, may there not be some cases in which a knowing aims at itself? Even the productive sciences aim at knowing a thing’s primary being and essential character, aside from its material; and the theoretical sciences aim at the explanation or understanding of an object. Hence, whenever things are immaterial the mind and its object are not different, so that they are the same; and knowing is united with what is known. But there remains the question whether what is known is composite; for then the thought might shift from one part of the whole to another. Is not everything indivisible which is immaterial? Hence, even as the human mind, or rather that of composite beings, is at times aware of its supreme and enduring good, not that good of this or that moment, but something quite different, so throughout eternity is that mind which Knows Itself.[7]