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To: Dumb_Ox; general_re
Could I trouble you for references to deification in the work of Aristotle?

Yes, if you'll allow me a moment . . . I was thinking how Voegelin might hang his criticism of Locke on general_re (link).

In #772 I cite the Metaphysics. This same idea he picks up in the Nicomachean Ethics book 10. The divine life is the best life, it is the life humans aspire to as much as is humanly possible. Sorry, I don't have exact references with me right now.

You will recognize that my response to exmarine was rhetorical and that Aristotle is no Plotinus. I merely point out that Alexander's motives shouldn't be so terribly suspect. It is rather normal to seek deification if you know what I mean.

And to circumvent confusion (saving myself), I'll point out that I had said "no more" than St. Paul.

805 posted on 05/11/2003 9:20:47 AM PDT by cornelis
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To: Dumb_Ox
Here is something from the Nicomachean Ethics Book 10.7 1177b (from the Crisp translation)
Such a life is superior to one that is simply human, because someone lives thus [in complete happiness], not in so far as he is a human being, but in so far as there is some divine element within him. And the activity of this divine element is as much superior to that in accordance with the other kind of virtue as the element is superior to the compound. If the intellect, then, is something divine compared with the human being, the life in accordance with it will also be divine compared with human life. But we ought not to listen to those who exhort us, because we are human, to think of human things, or because we are mortal, think of mortal things. We ought rather to take on immortality as much as possible and do all that we can to live in accordance with the highest element within us; for even if its bulk is small, in its power and value it far exceeds everything.

806 posted on 05/12/2003 7:46:32 AM PDT by cornelis
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