Plethon treats of God in the first three substantive paragraphs of De Differentiis.
His first claim is that "...Plato's view is that God, the supreme sovereign, is the creator of every kind of intelligible and separate substance, and hence of our entire universe. Aristotle, on the other hand, never calls God the creator of anything whatever, but only the motive force of the universe."(8)
In this paragraph, Plethon's support for his position is garnered from allusions to texts in Plato and Aristotle. For example, his interpretation of Aristotle's position is supported by reference to Metaphysics 1072b10 and Physics 258b11.
Plethon continues his complaint by noting "...that Aristotle does make God the end and the final cause; but even this must be regarded as a not very exalted claim and not one worthy of God, if he makes God the end not of the existence or essence of particular things but only of movement and change."(9)
Plethon's characterization of Aristotle's position, as far as it goes, is accurate. But what about his implied characterization of Plato's position with regard to God? Modern scholars have cited Epistles ii, 312e and Timaeus 27c-30d as sources for Plethon's claim. Now if we take Plethon to be arguing that Plato's God is a creator ex nihilo, then clearly Plethon's interpretation is wrong. More recent scholarship has not shown Grube's claim that "...Plato remains true to the old Greek principle that nothing can be created out of nothing and, within the myth itself, his maker is not a creator in the strict sense" to be false.(10) However, note that Plethon's interpretation does not go beyond the evidence. Plethon's claim is that, as we saw above, "...Plato's view is that God, the supreme sovereign, is the creator of every kind of intelligible and separate substance, and hence of our entire universe." This claim does not entail that Plato's God is a creator ex nihilo.
No comments:
Post a Comment