82. Life in God: Divine Life and Self-Motion

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

Life as Self-Motion #

• Life properly belongs to things that move themselves, not things moved by external causes
• The fundamental definition: “to live is for living things to be” (Aristotle)
• Life manifests itself more obviously in animals than in plants, where it is “hidden”

Grades of Life and Self-Motion #

• Grade 1 (Plants): Move themselves only regarding the execution of motion; form and end determined by nature; exemplified by growth and decrease
• Grade 2 (Animals with limited sensation): Move themselves by dilation and constriction (e.g., oysters); have touch but limited locomotion
• Grade 3 (Perfect animals): Have distance senses (sight, hearing, smell); move themselves regarding execution and the form acquired through sense; the end is still determined by nature (e.g., birds, dogs, cats)
• Grade 4 (Humans): Move themselves regarding execution, form, and end; possess reason and understanding to know the proportion between end and means
• Grade 5 (God): Moves Himself in all respects; determines all aspects of His operations; His understanding is His very being and His life

Motion and Act: The Critical Distinction #

• Two kinds of action (operatio):
  • Actions passing into external matter: eating, sawing, building (perfection of the moved, not the agent)
  • Actions remaining in the agent: understanding, sensing, willing (perfection of the agent itself)
• Motion (in strict sense): The act of what exists in potency (imperfect act); defined as the act of the able-to-be insofar as it is able-to-be
• Understanding and willing: Perfect acts that remain in the agent; complete in themselves, not spread out in time in the same way motion is
• The word “motion” is extended analogously to understanding and willing because of the grammatical similarity (verbs signifying with time), but this extension differs from how “motion” is extended to form

God’s Life: The Resolution #

• God has life most perfectly because God eternally understands Himself
• God does not move in the strict sense (as imperfect act), but He perfectly moves Himself through understanding and willing
• God’s understanding is not in potency but in eternal act; therefore, God has life “in the most perfect and eternal way”
• God has no source or cause of His life because God is His very existence and His very act of understanding
• When Plato says “God moves Himself,” he means God understands and loves Himself; when Aristotle says “God is the unmoved mover,” he uses motion in the strict sense—both formulations are compatible

The Common Philosophical Error #

• Mistake of confusing what is simply (absolute perfection) with what is not so simply but in some imperfect way
• Error made by those who think the beginning of all things is most potential and therefore most imperfect, rather than most actual and therefore most perfect
• This error creates a dichotomy: if the first cause is the least perfect thing, how can it be the end of knowledge (which seeks the best thing)?
• Aristotle avoids this by recognizing that act is before potency simply speaking, and therefore the beginning of all things is pure act and most perfect
• The error runs throughout philosophy, appearing in logic, natural philosophy, and metaphysics (e.g., materialism vs. substance)

Key Arguments #

Against Life Belonging to God (Objections) #

• Objection 1: God does not move; therefore, He does not live (since life is said of things that move themselves)
• Objection 2: All living things have a source or cause of their life (the soul); God has no source or cause; therefore, God does not live
• Objection 3: Life in living bodies requires a soul, which exists only in bodily things; therefore, bodiless things cannot be alive

Thomas’s Responses #

• Life belongs to God most perfectly because God perfectly acts from Himself through understanding
• There is a twofold action: one passing into external matter (perfection of the moved) and one remaining in the agent (perfection of the agent). Understanding is the second kind—a perfect act.
• Motion in the strict sense is the act of the imperfect; understanding is the act of the perfect. When we say God “moves Himself” through understanding, we extend the word “motion” analogously.
• God does not have a source of His life because God is His very existence and His very act of understanding—not derived from anything external
• Life in corruptible bodies requires a soul for generation and conservation; this does not apply to God, who is eternal and incorruptible
• The perfection of life increases with the perfection of self-motion; God has perfect life because He perfectly moves Himself regarding execution, form, and end

Important Definitions #

Life (ζωή/zoe) #

• Fundamentally: The very being or existence of a living thing; that which belongs to a thing by its nature to move itself or act from itself
• In God: God’s eternal act of understanding Himself, which is His very existence; not something God possesses, but what God is

Self-Motion (τὸ κινεῖσθαι αὑτό) #

• Motion of oneself, not by an external agent
• Properly belongs to living things
• Increases in perfection through the grades of life

Action/Doing (operatio) #

• Transitive action: Passes into external matter; perfects the moved, not the agent (eating, sawing, building)
• Immanent action: Remains in the agent; perfects the agent itself (understanding, sensing, willing)

Motion (κίνησις) #

• In the strict sense: The act of what exists in potency insofar as it is able-to-be (imperfect act)
• Complete definition from Aristotle (Physics III): The act of the able-to-be insofar as it is able-to-be
• Nature: Essentially imperfect; when walking home is complete, the walking home no longer exists; when one has achieved a height, one is not becoming that height

Act and Potency #

• Act (ἐνέργεια/energeia): Actuality, perfection, form; what something is in reality; two senses: motion and complete/perfect act
• Potency (δύναμις/dynamis): Potentiality, capacity to be or become something
• Simple act (actus purus): God is pure act, not in potency; therefore most perfect

Examples & Illustrations #

The Cat and the Bird #

• A cat looking out the window at a bird is moved by the form of the bird apprehended through sense
• The cat itself is responsible for acquiring this form through its senses
• The cat has not determined the end (to hunt the bird) through reason, but acts on instinct

Counting Students #

• A professor counts students in a classroom without knowing in advance the number will be 23
• The professor knows he is looking for “the number of students in class,” which is enough to direct his thinking toward counting
• He knows something about what he does not yet know—a solution to the Meno problem
• This illustrates how understanding (intellectual self-motion) directs itself toward an end without already possessing complete knowledge of that end

The Professor Reading #

• When reading visibly, activity is obvious; when thinking deeply about what he has read, activity is hidden from external observation
• Yet thinking and understanding are perhaps the most important activities the professor performs
• Illustrates how immanent action (remaining in the agent) differs from transitive action in appearing less obviously

Grades of Progressive Motion #

• Oysters move themselves only by dilation and constriction; their motion exceeds that of plants but lacks progressive motion
• Birds travel great distances through progressive motion; animals sometimes find their way back over vast distances (e.g., dogs and cats)
• These examples show how perfection of sensation and distance senses enable more perfect self-motion

The House in the Architect’s Mind #

• The form of the house in the architect’s mind has intelligible, immaterial being
• The house in matter has sensible, material being
• The house in matter is more truly a house (in act) than the one in the architect’s mind (in potency)
• Yet the house in the architect’s mind has more noble being
• This analogy illuminates how creatures have more being in God (uncreated being) but are more truly themselves in their own nature (created, material being)

Notable Quotes #

“Motion is a twofold action: one which carries over into exterior matter… and another which remains in the doer… Of which there is this difference, that the first action is not a perfection of the agent that moves, but it’s a perfecting of the moved, right? But the second action is a perfection of the agent.”

“Because motion is the act of the mobile, the second action, insofar as is an act of the one doing, is called as motion.”

“Although motion is the act of the imperfect… this other action is the act of the perfect.”

“It belongs to the wise to order.” (Aristotle, cited on why rational beings have the most perfect life)

“Act is before ability and knowledge, because you know ability to act, right? Act is before ability and perfection and goodness.”

“Simply speaking, act is before ability. And therefore the beginning of all things is going to be most actual and therefore most perfect.”

“With the truth, all things fit together. They harmonize.” (Aristotle, cited on the harmony between God being both the first thing and the best thing)

Questions Addressed #

Main Question: Does Life Belong to God? #

• Apparent Difficulty: If life belongs to things that move themselves, and God does not move, how can God have life?
• Resolution: Life belongs to God most perfectly. God eternally understands Himself, which is a perfect act (not motion in the strict sense). God moves Himself through understanding and willing, which are immanent actions that remain in the agent and perfect the agent. God perfectly acts from Himself regarding all aspects of His operations (execution, form, and end).

Subsidiary Questions #

• What is the perfection of life? Life increases in perfection as the capacity for self-motion increases; the highest perfection is in rational understanding, which can determine both the form and the end of action.
• How does God’s life differ from creatures’ life? God’s life has no source or cause; God is His very existence and His very act of understanding. Creatures’ life requires a source (the soul) and conservation. God’s understanding is in eternal act; creatures move from potency to act.
• Is Plato’s “God moves Himself” compatible with Aristotle’s “unmoved mover”? Yes. Plato uses “motion” analogously to mean understanding and willing (perfect acts); Aristotle uses “motion” strictly to mean the act of the imperfect. Both recognize that God is perfectly active through understanding while being unmoved in the strict sense.

Pedagogical Method #

Berquist employs concrete examples and analogies to illuminate abstract philosophical principles:

• Uses everyday experiences (counting, reading, observing a cat) to illustrate how understanding directs itself
• Emphasizes the distinction between how things appear to us (operations) and what things fundamentally are (being/existence)
• Repeatedly clarifies how the same term can be used in different senses (e.g., “motion” applied to both walking and understanding)
• Shows the interconnection of philosophical principles (act/potency, perfection/imperfection, self-motion/life)
• Connects metaphysical truths to theological understanding and Scripture