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    The first God remains absolutely simple despite being an ... — Carmelics
    Home/Divine Attributes
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    The first God remains absolutely simple despite being an intellect, because the first God thinks only itself, making its being and its object of thought identical.

    Divine AttributesNatural Theology
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.If an intellect thinks only itself, its being and object of thought are identical.
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    • 2.When being and object of thought are identical, no multiplicity is introduced.
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    • 3.The first God thinks only itself, like the Aristotelian God of Metaphysics Lambda.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Self-thinking thought still requires a structural distinction between the act of thinking and the content thought, even when they share the same referent.
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    • 2.This internal reflexive structure introduces a real duality—thinker-as-subject and thinker-as-object—that compromises absolute simplicity.
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    • 3.Plotinus explicitly argues in Enneads V.3 that any intellect, even self-directed, entails a dyad and therefore cannot be the absolutely simple First Principle.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Aristotle's self-thinking God in Metaphysics Lambda is already criticized by later Neoplatonists as insufficiently unified to serve as the ultimate first principle.
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    • 2.If the first God is modeled on Aristotelian noesis noeseos, it inherits the problem that intellection presupposes a capacity for thought distinct from its actualization.
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    • 3.A principle with unrealized potential, even formally, cannot be absolutely simple in the sense required by apophatic theology.
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    Topics

    Divine AttributesNatural Theology

    Connections

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    Modality & Possibility1 linkedPhilosophy of Language1 linked

    Related

    A principle with unrealized potential, even formally, cannot be absolutely simpl...Aristotle's self-thinking God in Metaphysics Lambda is already criticized by lat...If an intellect thinks only itself, its being and object of thought are identica...If the first God is modeled on Aristotelian noesis noeseos, it inherits the prob...
    +5 moreShow less
    Plotinus explicitly argues in Enneads V.3 that any intellect, even self-directed...Self-thinking thought still requires a structural distinction between the act of...The first God thinks only itself, like the Aristotelian God of Metaphysics Lambd...

    Similar

    The Form of the Good is identical with the first intellect.88%If an intellect thinks only itself, its being and object of thought ar...88%The Form of the Good, identical with the first intellect, accounts for...85%The first God can be the ultimate cause of everything while remaining ...82%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: numenius
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    Numenius faces two challenges. First, how can the first God be the ultimate cause of everything, as it appears it ought to be (fr. 16.1–2, 9), if it is inert? Second how can it be simple, as Numenius has claimed, if it is, as he has also claimed, an intellect that thinks? Numenius maintains that the first or highest God, or first intellect, brings about a second one (frs. 13, 21.7), in fact the divine demiurge, and uses this second intellect as an instrument of its thinking (fr. 22.1–2). It is
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    This internal reflexive structure introduces a real duality—thinker-as-subject a...
    When being and object of thought are identical, no multiplicity is introduced.
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit