Medicine and philosophy - Classical Homeopathy Online

240 Aristotle and his schoolThis problem, then, concerns the consistency of the argument withinthis chapter of the Eudemian Ethics. That it is a genuine problem is furthershown by the fact that the same objection as that raised in 1247 a 28–9concerning the distribution of the phenomenon ascribed to divine dispensation(and which I shall henceforth refer to as the ‘distribution argument’)is found in two other Aristotelian writings which are closely parallel toEth. Eud. 8.2, but there, contrary to Eth. Eud. 8.2, it is sufficient to rejectany explanation which ascribes eutuchia (or a comparable phenomenon)to a god. The passages in question are the parallel discussion of eutuchiain chapter 2.8 of the so-called Great Ethics (Magna moralia, Mag. mor.)and the treatment of prophetic dreams in the On Divination in Sleep (Dedivinatione per somnum, Div. somn.).Thus at a certain point of the discussion in Mag. mor. 1207 a 6ff., asin Eth. Eud. 1247 a 23ff., it is tentatively suggested that eutuchia might beexplained as a form of divine dispensation:But is eutuchia a kind of dispensation of the gods? Or would it appear to be notthat? 9But this suggestion is rejected on the strength of the following argument:We hold that God, who is in supreme control of such things [i.e. external goods],distributes both good and evil to those who deserve it, whereas chance and theresults of chance truly happen as chance would have it. And if we attribute such athing to God, we shall make him a poor judge, or at least not a just one; and thatis not befitting for God. (1207 a 7–12) 10In line 15, this conclusion is repeated:Surely, neither the concern nor the benevolence of God would seem to be eutuchia,because it [i.e. eutuchia] also occurs among the wicked; and it is unlikely that Godwould care for the wicked. 11The conclusion of the discussion of eutuchia in Mag. mor. 2.8 is that eutuchiais caused by an ‘irrational nature’ (alogos phusis), more specificallyby irrational ‘impulses’ or instinctive drives (hormai) (1207 a 35ff.). These‘impulses’ also play an important part in the explanation in Eth. Eud. 8.2(1247 b 18ff.), but the major difference between Eth. Eud. 8.2 and Mag.9 ;10 11