the wider conception, and includes κίνησις under it as a peculiar species, viz., an imperfect ἐνέργεια.[1]
Κίνησις, that is, arises from the longing of the imperfect for the perfect, of the ὕλη for the εἶδος, and is simply the process whereby it reaches whatever degree of perfection the inherent limitations of its nature concede to it.
Ἐνέργεια, on the other hand, does not essentially or necessarily imply motion or change. In fact in the typical case, the perfect exercise of function by the senses, there is neither κίνησις nor ἀλλοίωσις nor πάσχειν; the appropriate stimulus rouses the organ to activity and the organ functions naturally in grasping it[2]; when this process is free from friction (‘impediment’) perception is perfect and accompanied by ἡδονή.
In man unfortunately, this happy state of things is only temporary: activity cannot be sustained because, owing to the defectiveness (πονηρία or φαυλότης) of a composite nature adulterated with ὕλη, we grow weary and allow our attention to wander and cannot be continuously active (συνεχῶς ἐνεργεῖν).[3]
But God’s case is different; his is a pure and perfect nature; he is pure Form, unimpeded by Matter, and always completely and actually all that he can be. Hence the divine ἐνέργεια is kept up inexhaustibly,[4] and ever generates the supreme pleasure, simple and incorruptible, of self-contemplation (νόησις νοήσεως), which constitutes the divine happiness. It follows, as a matter of course, that this ἐνέργεια is above and beyond κίνησις; it is ἐνέργεια ἀκινησίας or ἠρεμία. Hence in a famous passage[5] we are told that “if the nature of anything were simple, the same action would ever be sweetest to it. And this is the reason why God always enjoys a single and simple pleasure; for there is not only an activity of motion, but also one void of motion, and pleasure is rather in constancy[6] than in motion. And
- ↑ Cf., e.g., Physics, iii., 2, 201 b 31., ἥ τε κίνησις ἐνέργεια μὲν εἶναί τις δοκεῖ, ἀτελὴς δέ, viii. 5, 257 b 8, ἔστιν δ' ἡ κίνησις ἐντελέχεια κινητοῦ ἀτελής. De Anima, ii., 5, 417 a 16, ἔστιν ἡ κίνησις ἐνέργειά τις, ἀτελὴς μέντοι: iii., 2, 431 a 5, φαίνεται δὲ τὸ μὲν αἰσθητὸν ἐκ δυνάμει ὄντος τοῦ αἰσθητικοῦ ἐνεργείᾳ ποιοῦν· οὐ γὰρ πάσχει οὐδ' ἀλλοιοῦται (sc. τὸ αἰσθητὸν), διὸ ἄλλο εἶδος τοῦτο κινήσεως; ἡ γὰρ κίνησις τοῦ ἀτελοῦς ἐνέργεια, ἡ δ' ἁπλῶς ἐνέργεια ἑτέρα, ἡ τοῦ τετελεσμένου. Metaph., Θ, 6, 1048 b 29 πᾶσα γὰρ κίνησις ἀτελής.
Cf. also Eth. Nich., x., 3, 1174 a 19, where it is explained that ἡδονὴ is not κίνησις, because it does not need perfecting (being indeed what itself perfects ἐνέργεια, while κίνησις does.
- ↑ Eth. Nich., x., 4, 5, 1174 b 14.
- ↑ Ibid., x., 4, 9, 1175 a 4.
- ↑ This is true also of the heavenly bodies, by reason of their more perfect ὕλη. Cf. Metaph., 1050 b 22.
- ↑ Eth. Nich., vii., 14, 8 (1154 b 25-31).
- ↑ ἠρεμία cannot be translated ‘rest’ without misleading. For ‘rest’ to us = non-activity, which to Aristotle is tantamount to non-existence. He uses the word in order to express the steady and effortless maintenance of a perfect equilibrium. Cf. An. Post., ii., 19, where the same word is used to describe the emergence of the logical universal, i.e., of the constancy of meaning, out of the flux of psychological ‘ideas’.
