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Aristotle's Apostasy: From the Thinking God as Unmoved Mover of Metaphysics Lambda to the Divine Fifth Element of On the Heavens


This page is periodically updated and also provides Errata, if any. In addition, the page gives information on, for example, reviews or other publications related to Aristotle's "Not to Fear" Proof for the Necessary Eternality of the Universe.

The layout follows this order:

  1. Errata (by page number)
  2. Reviews of Aristotle's Apostasy
  3. Related publications
  4. Replies, Reviews and Comments on Related Publications
  5. Related Links

Errata

If you have an error to report or wish to provide any type of feedback, kindly email to info@EPSpress.com. If you wish the feedback to be considered for inclusion below, please indicate which section you prefer.


Clarification

Reviews of Aristotle's Apostasy

Forthcoming, as a publication officially announces any, or as submitted directly to us at info@EPSpress.com.


Related publications (in chronological order)

Forthcoming, as they appear.
Aristotle's "Not to Fear" Proof, 2019;

Replies, Reviews and Comments on Related Publications

(Unless noted, comments are by G. Scott)

The following are replies or comments on works that became known after publication.

Related Links

The following include, first, the eight "digital extensions" of Aristotle Aristotle's "Not to Fear" Proof (2019) that are reproduced as a whole in Volume 2:

1. Does the Unmoved Mover Necessarily Imply the Physical Universe?
   A scholar who teaches ancient and medieval philosophy, and the history of logic, asks whether and how the views in Aristotle's "Not to Fear" Proof would handle the kind of position that Averroes champions.

2. Various Versions of the Principle of Plenitude
   As noted above, this provides a summary of the various versions of the Principle of Plenitude and why understanding them allows us to grasp Aristotelian theory pertaining to the issues at hand more fully.

3. Aristotle, Cantor and the Principle of Plenitude
   Anne Newstead explains how Cantor not only follows Spinoza in some ways but appeals to God's thinking and the Principle of Plenitude to argue for the legitimacy of actual infinities, contra the Stagirite. Because of the views developed in Aristotle's "Not to Fear" Proof, the discussion at this link shows not only that Aristotle's position is unscathed but that the "thinking" of Nous in Metaphysics Lambda could not be engaging in the divine thinking that, for Cantor, allows infinities to be actual.

4. The Ambiguity of “Possible” in Aristotle's Unmoved Mover aka God: The Stagirite's Triangular Modal Model, not a Modern Modal Square, and the Ramifications for the “Not to Fear” Proof
   Stemming from Naomi Reshotko's “From the Cosmology of the Timaeus, through the Metaphysics of Anankē, to the Epistemology of the Forms” at the conference in honor of Sarah Broadie, Marquette University, February 2020, this clarifies further Aristotle's use of the modals "possible" and "necessary" in Lambda, how the Stagirite cannot be using his mature "ontological" sense of these modals, and why the options are either Platonic senses or a (merely) logical sense that is found in deductions like syllogisms with terms that can be, and sometimes are, completely fictional. None of these other senses of the modalities undercut the conclusions of the "Not to Fear" Proof, and, if anything, strengthen them.

5. Consigning Aristotle's “God” to Oblivion
   This continues the discussions and private exchanges with specialists after the conference at Marquette. One scholar offers three objections to the conclusion that, because the Stagirite realized the physical universe was necessarily eternal in virtue of its own nature, he drops the otiose Unmoved Mover by mid-career. Not only are replies given to each objection but a Postscript rigorously evaluates the claims of Philip Merlan, who has had significant influence with specialists, writing in the 1940's that the Northern Greek is actually "polytheistic." That is, Merlan tries to reconcile the seeming discrepancy of a single Unmoved Mover in Lambda 6 with at least 47 unmoved movers in Lambda 8, asserting that Aristotle can posit multiple entities of a certain class—“immaterial unmoved movers qua gods”—even without his normal requirement (as repeated in Lambda 8) that matter is required for individuation.

6. On Sarah Broadie's "Heavenly Bodies and First Causes" — Two Turning Points in the History of Theology: Aristotle's Divine "Fifth Element" and the Perversion by Alexander of Aphrodisias
   In 2009, Broadie provides the seeming justification for Aristotle holding the Unmoved Mover as an immaterial first cause, although she also explains the theoretical power of his theory of the outer spheres being a "fifth element," as was recognized in antiquity. This digital extension demonstrates that she could be right on the first point, but only concerning Aristotle's youthful theory. Broadie articulates the considerations that permit us to see more of the details of the Stagirite's mature theory (involving the ontological necessity of the universe in virtue of its own nature). The rest of the digital extension demonstrates that not one Peripatetic after Aristotle accepted the Unmoved Mover of No Potentiality. For instance, Strato, the third head of the Lyceum, utterly rejects immaterial causes, and Xenarchus of Seleucia, in the 1st century BCE, argues only against the "fifth element," while not countenancing the Unmoved Mover. Rather, it is only 500 years later, with Alexander of Aphrodisias erroneously interpreting Lambda to be the most mature theory, and with Plotinus shortly thereafter arguing against the straw man rather than against the "fifth element," that the modern tradition for Aristotle's theology gets cemented.

7. Plato Imitates Aristotle: Alcmaeon of Croton, Phaedrus 245c-e, and Laws 10
   As demonstrated in the previous digital extensions, the Stagirite abandoned by 360-355 the immaterial, unchanging Unmoved Mover of Metaphysics Lambda 6 (usually, but not always, identified with the "God," of Lambda 7) in favor of the eternally moving "fifth element" that nevertheless is always the same.
   Until now, Plato's proof for the human and divine soul in Phaedrus 245c-e has been thought by specialists to have come directly, if only essentially, from Alcmaeon, a renowned physician who moonlighted as a philosopher, despite the proof generating tensions with the Phaedo and despite some remarkable similarities with mature Aristotelian doctrine. In this final digital extension, Scott offers a more plausible hypothesis: Because the Stagirite wrote a (lost) book on the Crotoniate according to Diogenes, it is reasonable to assume, and Laws 10 helps confirm, that the Athenian follows his Stagirite colleague regarding Alcmaeon. That is, notwithstanding that Plato always maintains a belief in a supernatural entity, he mimics Aristotle in the realm of ontology by irrevocably dropping the immaterial and unmoving Forms in favor of the primary reality of the (world) soul that moves eternally in virtue of its own nature. Hence, eternal movement for both thinkers becomes the primary ontological "predicate," not unmoving immateriality.
   Scott further augments his published reasons for the metic Aristotle not broadcasting his theological apostasy (beyond a trusted inner circle): In Laws 10, the Athenian also mandates jailing atheists for at least 5 years or killing them (908a-909a). Aristotle might as well have openly acknowledged being Catholic in the court of Queen Elizabeth I or being Huguenot in the courts of Louis XIV and XV.

8. Critolaus and Atticus on Aristotle
   Neither Critolaus, the head of the Peripatos in the 2nd century BCE, nor Atticus, the Platonizing anti-Aristotelian Christian from the 2nd century CE, show any awareness of the Stagirite advocating the completely immaterial Unmoved Mover of Metaphysics Lambda 6, which has usually been held since Alexander of Aphrodisias in the 3rd century CE to be the same entity as ho theos, the "god" of Lambda 7-8. However, that entity has a blessed life, and for Aristotle life requires matter.
   In addition, Critolaus and Atticus both address the Stagirite's "divine" fifth element, confirming Scott's thesis that the Mover was Aristotle's youthful doctrine and was dropped in favor of that fifth element, the "always running" aether that includes the "outer spheres" and that is eternal in virtue of its own nature. The two thinkers also provide further evidence for Scott's position that not one philosopher, whether Peripatetic or not, accepted—or, apart from Theophrastus' dismissive remarks in passing, even cared to discuss—the Mover for 500 years, until Alexander (and Plotinus) mistakenly ignored Aristotle's evolution and set for posterity Lambda as his one and only onto-theology.
   As the title of the pdf suggests, this is expected to be the final "digital extension. See the following "Announcement."

9. "The Final Nails in the Coffin of Aristotle's Unmoved Mover of Metaphysics Lambda 6," The Conference on Aristotle's Metaphysics, University of Ottawa, Nov 2024
   To be precise, this is not so much a ninth digital extension as it is a summary with some new points and a little more evidence from Eudemus of Rhodes, Peri Kosmou aka De Mundo, and recent findings on the creation in Hellenistic and Roman times of "our" book entitled Metaphysics.
   In addition, I summarize briefly the work of WKC Guthrie on De Caelo ("DC") from 1939, work that I discovered just before the conference. Guthrie argued that DC and its fifth element is inconsistent with Lambda's Unmoved Mover, which is exactly right, but Guthrie thought that Aristotle had three theological stages: When young he accepted that the outer spheres have souls, following Plato, as revealed in On Philosophy. Then the Stagirite evolved to the theory of DC, which is also right. Yet then Guthrie claims, for very suspicious reasons, that Aristotle advanced finally to the doctrine of the Unmoved Mover. The reasons why Guthrie is wrong on this final issue has been implicitly presented when addressing Broadie's theory but are supplemented with additional arguments specific to Guthrie in 2025, along with any additional arguments to rebut anyone from Ottawa who chooses to consider the Handout provided to the audience and available at this URL.

10. "Why WKC Guthrie's 3-Stage Evolution of Aristotle's Theology Should be 2-Stage -- Or Is it Impious to Dance on the Grave of the Non-existent Unmoved Mover of Lambda 6?", International Aristotelian Conference, University of Lisbon, July 2025
   Claudio Veloso, after hearing the talk in Ottawa, offered to reply to my subsequent presentation in Lisbon, and the conference gave us two sessions back to back. This URL takes anyone interested in the debate to all the assets, including the issue of whether the 5th Element can have a soul.

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Created 16 July 2026