Prime mover

The prime mover ( Greek τὸ πρῶτον κινοῦν , lat. Primum movens , literally the first driving) is the central concept of Aristotle's cosmology . His doctrine of the prime mover is a highlight of the “driving cause” as applied to space in general and to metaphysical issues in particular. Using the concept of "prime mover" Aristotle sought to explain the justification of the eternity of the world and the appropriateness of nature. In his “Physics” (8th book), the concept of the prime mover is postulated in connection with the analysis of the motion process: since everything is moving-movable (this concept in Greek contains both meanings) is driven by something, and an infinite sequence is moving-movable impossible, then there is a need for the existence of a "first mover", in itself absolutely motionless ^[1] . Aristotle's “first movable” is the sphere of fixed stars, the corresponding “first moving” one is located on the other side of the periphery of the cosmos and does not have any particular size. The main contradiction of the doctrine of the prime mover is that its existence runs counter to Aristotelian understanding of nature as “containing a source of motion in itself” and his doctrine of immanence to the elements of their “natural motion”. So, Aristotle in his treatise On the Sky, although he mentioned the prime mover (p. 288, line 27), he nevertheless explained the circulation of the sky solely as a natural property of the ether - the “fifth substance” ^[2] .

In Aristotle's “Metaphysics” (12th book), the prime mover acts as a transcendent “god” and a value “beginning” on which “the universe and nature depend.” He is that “reality”, which is necessarily assumed by the transition from potency (possibility) to act (action), in this case - global formation and movement, and transforming inert matter into entelechial space. As energy and a pure form ( eidos ), it does not have any potentiality and materiality and therefore has a mind (noos), and since immateriality implies the absence of “parts” and excludes any multiplicity for it, then it can think only of itself and in it is this self-thinking that consists of his eternal and blissful life of the “God” (p. 1072, line 24). Since the connection between the incorporeal “first mover” and the bodily “first mover” is impossible, he “moves as an object of love attraction” (p. 1072, line 3), to which everyone aspires as an ultimate goal and the highest good. The prime mover of Aristotle is different from the demiurge of Plato in that he did not create the world once once and completed the task, but constantly transforms and actualizes it for an entire eternity, thereby guaranteeing its origin and immortality ^[2] .