Unmoved mover

Raphael's depiction of the unmoved mover from the Stanza della Segnatura

The unmoved mover (Ancient Greek: ὃ οὐ κινούμενον κινεῖ, romanizedho ou kinoúmenon kineî, lit.'that which moves without being moved')[1] or prime mover (Latin: primum movens) is a concept advanced by Aristotle as a primary cause (or first uncaused cause)[2] or "mover" of all the motion in the universe.[3] As is implicit in the name, the unmoved mover moves other things, but is not itself moved by any prior action. In Book 12 (Ancient Greek: Λ) of his Metaphysics, Aristotle describes the unmoved mover as being perfectly beautiful, indivisible, and contemplating only the perfect contemplation: self-contemplation. He also equates this concept with the active intellect. This Aristotelian concept had its roots in cosmological speculations of the earliest Greek pre-Socratic philosophers[4] and became highly influential and widely drawn upon in medieval philosophy and theology. Thomas Aquinas, for example, elaborated on the unmoved mover in the Five Ways.

  1. ^ Aristotle, Metaphysics XII, 1072a.
  2. ^ Nielsen, Kai (1971). Reason and practice; a modern introduction to philosophy. New York: Harper & Row. pp. 170–2. ISBN 0060448369. LCCN 70137800.
  3. ^ "Aristotle's Natural Philosophy". Aristotle's Natural Philosophy: Movers and Unmoved Mover. stanford.edu. 2018.
  4. ^ Lesher, James H. (2001). Xenophanes of Colophon: Fragments. University of Toronto Press. pp. 106–110.

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