Aristotle on Metaphysics(2004) - Bibotu.com

284 THE ULTIMATE CAUSE OF CHANGE: GODstrive to come to a complete standstill? Why does its perfection consist inperfect motion, i.e. everlasting, uniform, circular motion, and not in astate of rest? This takes us to the heart of <strong>Aristotle</strong>’s conception of theultimate cause of change. For although the ultimate cause of change issupposed to be changeless, it is also supposed to be engaged in its owninternal and most perfect activity, namely, rational thought. And, as wewill see in a moment, the thinking engaged in by the ultimate cause ofchange is quite unlike the thinking and desire that belongs to the cosmos.For while the cosmos thinks and desires something other than itself,namely, the ultimate cause of change, the ultimate cause of change thinksnothing but itself. Moreover, it is hard to see how God could have anydesires at all, since he is absolutely perfect. So what corresponds with theperfect motion of the natural cosmos and the outermost heaven is not thechangelessness of the ultimate cause of change, but its activity. This showsthat there is after all a proper correspondence and analogy between themost perfect activity of the material cosmos, namely, the everlasting,uniform and circular motion of the outermost heaven, on the one hand,and the most perfect activity of the ultimate cause of change, namely,rational thought, on the other hand. For they are both perfect activities:the one is an activity that is perfect for a thing of its kind, namely, achanging, material and contingent thing; the other is an absolutely perfectactivity, the activity that consists in the thinking engaged in by achangeless, immaterial intellect, the intellect that is identical with theultimate cause of change—God.8The activity of the ultimate cause of change: thinkingSo far the distinctive characteristics of the ultimate cause of change haveincluded the following: it is the first cause of the motion of the cosmos; itis supremely good; and it is the object of the thought and desire of thecosmos. These characteristics are knit tightly together. For the ultimatecause of change is the first cause of motion in virtue of being somethingwhich the cosmos recognizes to be supremely good and which it desires tobe like as far as possible. So the cosmos somehow imitates the ultimatecause of change—God, in that God is supremely good and rational andthe cosmos is as good and rational as is possible for a thing of its kind.But we have not yet mentioned what <strong>Aristotle</strong> undoubtedly considers tobe the central characteristic of the ultimate cause of change, namely,activity (energeia). It is because the ultimate cause of change is aneverlasting, perfect and above all active and living being that <strong>Aristotle</strong>