Philosophy and Christian Truth - Part 3

Aristotle and Christian Truth

 

When the philosophers' baton was passed on to the next generation of thinkers, it was handed off to a man who came to be known as THE Philosopher of ancient times: Plato's most gifted and influential student, Aristotle. This Greek thinker was responsible for much of what we take for granted both in theological thought and in scientific thought generally.

 

Recalling that Plato's system of thought assumed both a non-physical, "ideal" world of pure forms, and a physical, imperfect world of observable objects, this resulted in the necessity of a "two-story" kind of system, a dualistic reality. Aristotle came to question this kind of thinking, and eventually rejected it, believing in a reality that is ultimately unified. Both the forms and the matter of all the objects around us, he concluded, are real and inherent within the objects themselves.

 

When Aristotle observed the world, he gathered that if he observed a particular form, that form always had matter--a material of some kind--along with the form. And when he saw any kind of matter, that matter wasn't an amorphous blob, but it had some kind of form along with it. Form and matter always combine to make up the reality of any object--the object's substance.

 

This idea of substance is basic to his thought, along with the laws of logic, which determine how we can and cannot think and speak about various objects we observe. In other words, our knowledge of the world around us has to conform to categories of rational thought. On the basis of those categories, we are able to identify, distinguish, describe and correlate the objects we encounter in reality. The categories Aristotle considered included quantity (physical dimensions), quality (color, texture, shape), relations, place, date, posture, possession, action, and passivity.

 

The basic reality of a thing is the thing's substance. Once a thing is determined to be real--to have substance--we can begin to make statements about the thing, statements that fit into one of the nine categories. These categorical statements are used to address the observable qualities of the object. These qualities are what Aristotle called the object's accidens as opposed to its substance (that which is assumed about the object but not directly observable). An object's substance, he insisted, generates these outward qualities simply by being what it is. For him, a thing's form and matter make up its substance, which can only be described by observing its accidens.

 

When I look at a chair, I can see its form and appearance, but not the atoms or materials that lie beneath its surface. I have to assume that the chair has substance--material reality--without directly observing it, but I can make additional statements about its accidens--the chair's observable qualities such as its size, shape, color, structure, style, etc. This, in a nutshell, is the way science functions. Scientists observe reality as closely and exhaustively as possible, and seek to make categorical statements about what they observe. Then they put those discoveries to use in (hopefully) intelligent and beneficial ways.

 

It's important for Christians to remember that Aristotle didn't invent or create science or logical categories. God is the one who did that. In a way, Aristotle (as well as all other philosophers) are in the business of "thinking God's thoughts after Him." All human thinkers who use their minds to identify, discover, determine, differentiate, categorize the reality around us, are merely using their God-given powers of reason to describe His orderly, intelligently designed creation. Of course, fallen men misuse their powers of reason for evil purposes and routinely fail to use their discoveries for the glory of God. But they should be reminded that all scientific inquiry owes its possibility and its beneficial potential to the One who designed and generated all things.

 

Aristotle came to the conclusion that there had to be a god of some kind that governs the universe, but his concept of god in no way resembles the God of the Bible. Let us praise the Lord that He has revealed Himself in the Book so clearly and miraculously and savingly. We thank Him that that revelation came most clearly in the form of the God-man, Jesus Christ, the true wisdom from on high!

Part 2 of this series:
http://markaikins.blogspot.com/2014/02/philosophy-and-christian-truth-part-2.html
Part 1 of this series:
http://markaikins.blogspot.com/2014/01/early-greek-ideas-and-christian.html