Workshop in Ancient Philosophy (Thursday - Week 6, TT24)

Chair: Janine Gühler

Abstract: For Aristotle, love makes the world go round (Kahn, 1985): the heavenly spheres (themselves alive for Aristotle) desire the Prime Mover, a being that is alive to the highest extent, and their desire is expressed in eternal circular locomotion. The Prime Mover as the highest object of desire is Aristotle’s explanation for the motion of the cosmos. But how does mortal life relate to the Prime Mover? Do plants, animals, and human beings desire the Prime Mover’s state as well? Although this is often denied (e.g., Judson 2019), I argue that there is striking textual evidence for an intimate connection between mortal life and the Prime Mover: mortal living beings don’t merely imitate the Prime Mover’s state of being, they participate in it – even if only to some limited degree. Such a view explains why all life loves living and why the highest happiness for human beings consists in a self-loving awareness of our own being alive.