Review article
https://doi.org/10.31192/np.17.3.4
With the Metaphysical Principle of Causality. God as the Foundation and Cause of Being
Antonio Poljak
orcid.org/0000-0002-4973-828X
; Theological-Catechetical Institute in Mostar, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Abstract
This article examines the fundamental aspect of causality because it discusses the fundamental question of metaphysics: why a being is, rather than is nothing? The subject of metaphysical principle of causality completely reminds that, in the discussion about the Being and being within the metaphysics, God is the first and the last foundation, cause and principle of overall being. Identifying the Being as the foundation of being as God, Heidegger calls “onto-theo-logy”. On many occasions he emphasizes the connection of the Being beings with the causes. Because of this, the author of this article refers back to the beginnings of the western metaphysics where it is revealed that the contemplation about the causality belongs to the wider metaphysical subject of identity and difference. It is actually about the subject of the first being in relation to the multiplicity of things and movement (change). Plato identifies the maker of cosmos as the cause, and the cosmos as the effect of that cause. Based on this study of four causes, Aristotle proposed the comprehensive solution of the being. The being constantly moves in its existence, and it exists as the constant cancellation of the difference between the possibility and reality. Therefore, the two fundamental moments of being, the reality and the possibility, along with the hylomorphism as the study of the principles of being, represent Aristotle’s permanent contribution and heritage to the realistic concept of the being in its Being. However, the strongpoint of all Aristotle’s metaphysics is the concept of God as the first immovable mover, the reality itself, the pure form and the highest purpose of all being. God is therefore the foundation of the overall Being of being because, through His reality, he realizes all of which can only form the slightest possibility. Even though the movement and the matter are eternal, God is, as the first immovable mover, ontologically “before” the overall reality. Aristotle therefore says that the sky and nature is dependent on him. Based on all of Aristotle’s reflection, two aspects of the ontological principles of causality stand out: 1) the activity (reality) always comes before the possibility, both by concept and by Being; 2) everything that is in motion must be moved by something else that moves it.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
228403
URI
Publication date:
25.11.2019.
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