Aristotle on Metaphysics(2004) - Bibotu.com

282 THE ULTIMATE CAUSE OF CHANGE: GOD7The ultimate cause of change as the object of thoughtand desire of the cosmos<strong>Aristotle</strong>’s theory of rational thought, desire and action is an issue in its ownright. But what is important for our purpose is that he is ready to use themain elements of this theory in order to clarify the relation ship betweenthe cosmos, and in particular the outermost heaven which delimits andunifies it, and the ultimate cause of change, which transcends the cosmosand causes it to move as it does. But, for this analogy to work, the cosmosmust somehow be a rational animal, i.e. a rational living organism, and itmust somehow be capable of thinking, desiring and acting. Moreover, theultimate cause of change, which is the ultimate cause of the cosmos, and inparticular of the motion of the outermost heaven, must somehow be thegood that is thought, desired and pursued by the cosmos. But, naturallyenough, it is difficult properly to comprehend this analogy.There are two questions here. How can the ultimate cause of change bean object of rational thought and desire (a noēton and orekton/ boulēton)?And how can the cosmos, and in particular the outermost heaven whichdelimits and unifies it, be a rational living organism that somehow thinksand desires the ultimate cause of change—‘loves’ the ultimate cause ofchange, as he also says (1072 b 3)?His answer to the first question appears to be clear enough: the ultimatecause of change is an object of thought and desire because the ultimatecause of change is good, indeed supremely and perfectly good. Heemphasizes in a variety of ways that the ultimate cause of change is ‘good’,‘perfect’, ‘beautiful’, ‘loved’ (1072 a 34f.). Of course, this is not moralgoodness, but rather the goodness of things in so far as they are rationaland intelligible, i.e. in so far as they are subject to explanation. For theultimate cause of change is the ultimate and most basic explanatoryprinciple, and this is why it is supremely good. The beauty of the ultimatecause of change is also rather abstract and intellectual, although it has avisible counterpart in the beauty of the starry heavens and their rational,orderly, uniform, motion in a circle.Unfortunately, <strong>Aristotle</strong> does less to clarify how the cosmos, and inparticular the outermost heaven which delimits and unifies it, can be arational living organism which thinks and desires the ultimate cause ofchange. It is perhaps less difficult to understand how the cosmos can be arational living organism. The cosmos is a living organism in the sense thatits parts add up to an organic, active whole, such that the activity of theparts contribute to the activity of the whole; and this living, active