Aristotle, Myth, and Extraterrestrial Intelligences
An Ancient "Super Natural" Philosophy of Religion
“If we followed in [Aristotle’s] footsteps, drawing on our sciences, from theoretical physics to engineering, economics and ethics, what conclusions would we reach? If we are to be Aristotelians now it cannot be by parroting Aristotle’s theories. Instead, it must be by taking him as a paradigm of how we might be philosophers and theologians ourselves — a ‘pa
radigm in the heavens,” so to speak, “for anyone who wishes to look at it and to found himself on the basis of what he sees. (Plato, Republic 529b).”
— C.D.C. Reeve, “Introduction” to Aristotle’s Theology: The Primary Texts
“It is a sure sign of the death of a religion when its mythic presuppositions become systematized, under the severe rational eyes of an orthodox rationalism, into a ready sum of historical events, and when people begin timidly defending the veracity of myth but at the same time resisting its natural continuance — when the feeling for myth withers and its place is taken by a religion claiming historical foundations.”
— Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, X (Golffing translation)
“If these things are real — and by all human standards it hardly seems possible to doubt this any longer — then we are left with only two hypotheses: that of their weightlessness on the one hand and of their psychic nature on the other. This is a question I for one cannot decide.”
— C.G. Jung, Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies
“Both the technological and fictional readings of something like the UFO phenomenon are part of the same world-story . . . materialism. On one level, materialism is just more monotheism in disguise. It is another jealous god. Instead of “My God is the only God,” now it is “There is only matter.” The story goes like this. Matter is made up of tiny dead things that are bouncing or waving around in predictable mathematical patterns. It’s all math. There is no meaning. There is no mind. Evolution is without a goal. It intends nothing. It is going nowhere. The universe is pointless.”
— Jeffrey Kripal, The Super Natural: Why the Unexplained in Real
Aristotle’s natural theology is a complicated and controversial affair. The upshot is that he arrives at the conclusion that there must be a system of eternal moving movers (the gods in the heavens) explanatorily united by a single unmoved mover (the god). Note well that Aristotle claims to arrive at the existence of the gods and the god scientifically, i.e. by making deductive inferences based on requirements for the intelligibility of empirical phenomena. Basically, he is impressed by the fact that sublunary substances, i.e., earthly beings composed of the basic elements (earth, air, water, and fire) move eternally. (For more on Aristotle on the eternity of motion see this lecture.) That is, terrestrial beings have come to be and passed away forever (and will do so forever). By Aristotle’s light, such motion (the coming to be and passing away of earth/air/water/fire composites) cannot account for itself (even if it is eternal), so it must be accounted for by a higher-order intelligibility that pulls all this earthly motion into a coherent system of change. This cause of motion moves substances, so it must be a substance, but it cannot be moved in the same way (otherwise we have only kicked the can down the explanatory road). That is, the mover of earthly substances must be unmoved relative to earthly substances, i.e., it cannot be moved by them nor can it be moved in the same way. The higher-order mover is utterly independent with respect to earthly movers. Since earthly motion is eternal (infinite into both the past and the future), the higher-order mover must then be eternal. Moreover, this higher-order mover, since it accounts for earthly movement cannot be composed of the earthly elements (earth, air, water, and fire), and it is therefore immaterial with respect to earthly beings. The mode of causality by which this relatively unmoved/immaterial mover moves earthly beings is curious, since it must cause motion in earthly beings without being in earthly motion (otherwise it would fail as an explanation of such motion). The higher-order mover of earthly motion does not intervene in earthly affairs. Earthly beings must be moved by an attraction to this relatively unmoved/immaterial mover (desire, contemplation, or some such).