Aristotle and Plato are both philosophers and thinkers of...

Aristotle and Plato are both philosophers and thinkers of the Greek tradition but they each came to very different conclusions about the nature of divinity. Plato’s god was subordinate to the ever important forms while Aristotle’s god was selfish. Combined together each of their different philosophies could probably come pretty close to the ideas of the great monotheistic religions of today. Although they belong to different philosophical traditions both Plato and Aristotle share many of the same basic ideas even though their conclusions and ends tend to differ quite a bit from one another. The main idea which sets apart the thoughts of Plato and Aristotle is that of the forms, which must be explained to understand Plato’s divinity. The†¦show more content†¦Another one of Plato’s divinities would be the Demiurge or craftsman god which Plato speaks of in Timaeus. Plato charged this god with the creation of the entire universe. Although the Demiurge is not higher than the forms Plato still credits the craftsman god with bringing order to the universe and endowing humans with immortal and intelligent souls. Second to the Demiurge would be lesser gods which encapsulate the planets in spheres and account for their eternal movement. In summation, Plato’s idea of a god is anything that is immutable, intelligent, and immortal. It is easy to see, then, why Plato seems to see divinities seemingly everywhere in the universe. Aristotle has a much different conception of divinity than Plato. His highest divinity is not the forms but something which he refers to as the unmoved mover, first mover, or prime mover. This prime mover is the common source of all substance, movement, and change in the universe and it has three characteristics: it is composed of pure actuality, has no physical matter, and is eternal. 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