Abstract
This paper explores Thomas Aquinas's perspective on the prime mover of celestial spheres. In Latin medieval cosmology, all movements in the natural world are reduced to the rotational motion of celestial bodies. In traditional Aristotelian natural philosophy, the prime mover of celestial bodies is regarded as God-substance that thinks itself. However, Christian theologians also acknowledge the existence of immaterial angels besides both God and the material world. Ancient Christian thinkers attributed the cause of movement of celestial bodies to angels. Thomas synthesizes the positions of theological authorities, Aristotelian natural philosophy, and the universal principles of causality outlined in the Arabic “Book of Causes” to deduce the various substantial attributes of the prime mover of celestial bodies. The cause of all motions must be a self-moving principle, meaning it must possess a soul in the sense of the principle of life. However, the celestial soul exists as pure intellectual activity without sense-perception. If the soul of celestial bodies were characterized solely by its intellectual nature, it would not be distinguishable from another intellectual being, i.e. angels. They are distinguished only by the relative distance of participation in the First Cause, or in other words, by the difference in the grade of perfection of existence. Thomas acknowledges that the celestial soul is substantially similar to the lower angels confessed in Christianity but he doesn't argue for the complete exclusion of the term “soul.” Perhaps he wanted to preserve the concept of the soul as a purely philosophical concept corresponding with angels.
Published Version
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