Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/aristotle_divine-thought.asp?pg=2

ELPENOR - Home of the Greek Word

Three Millennia of Greek Literature
 

Aristotle Bilingual Anthology : DIVINE THOUGHT

from Aristotle's Metaphysics, * 1074b15-1075a10, translated by W. D. Ross, Greek Fonts


ELPENOR EDITIONS IN PRINT
Page 2

Evidently, then, it thinks of that which is most divine and precious, and it does not change; for change would be change for the worse, and this would be already a movement. First, then, if 'thought' is not the act of thinking but a potency, it would be reasonable to suppose that the continuity of its thinking is wearisome to it. Secondly, there would evidently be something else more precious than thought, viz. that which is thought of. For both thinking and the act of thought will belong even to one who thinks of the worst thing in the world, so that if this ought to be avoided (and it ought, for there are even some things which it is better not to see than to see), the act of thinking cannot be the best of things. Therefore it must be of itself that the divine thought thinks (since it is the most excellent of things), and its thinking is a thinking on thinking.

δῆλον τοίνυν ὅτι τὸ θειότατον καὶ τιμιώτατον νοεῖ καὶ οὐ μεταβάλλει· εἰς χεῖρον γὰρ ἡ μεταβολὴ καὶ κίνησίς τις ἤδη τὸ τοιοῦτον. πρῶτον μὲν οὖν εἰ μὴ νόησίς ἐστιν ἀλλὰ δύναμις͵ εὔλογον ἐπίπονον εἶναι τὸ συνεχὲς αὐτῷ τῆς νοήσεως· ἔπειτα δῆλον ὅτι ἄλλο τι ἂν εἴη τὸ τιμιώτερον ἢ ὁ νοῦς͵ τὸ νοούμενον. καὶ γὰρ τὸ νοεῖν καὶ ἡ νόησις ὑπάρξει καὶ τὸ χείριστον νοοῦντι͵ ὥστ΄ εἰ φευκτὸν τοῦτο (καὶ γὰρ μὴ ὁρᾶν ἔνια κρεῖττον ἢ ὁρᾶν)͵ οὐκ ἂν εἴη τὸ ἄριστον ἡ νόησις. αὑτὸν ἄρα νοεῖ͵ εἴπερ ἐστὶ τὸ κράτιστον͵ καὶ ἔστιν ἡ νόησις νοήσεως νόησις.

First Page ||| Next Page

Three Millennia of Greek Literature


Greek Literature - Ancient, Medieval, Modern

Learned Freeware

Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-greece/aristotle_divine-thought.asp?pg=2