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Aristotle and Corruptibility

A Discussion of Aristotle, De Caelo I, xii

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

C. J. F. Williams
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Hull

Extract

In a discussion-note in Mind (July 1958), Father P. M. Farrell, O.P., gave an account, in what he admitted to be an embarrassingly brief compass, of the Thomist doctrine concerning evil. There is one sentence in this discussion which at first glance appears paradoxical. Father Farrell has been arguing that a universe containing ‘corruptible good’ as well as incorruptible is better than one containing ‘incorruptible good’ only. He continues: ‘If, however, they are to manifest this corruptible good, they must be corruptible and they must sometimes corrupt.’ The final words, despite Father Farrell's italics, strike one as expressing, not a self-evident truth, but a non sequitur. The fact that I am capable of committing murder does not entail that I will at some time commit it. It is not immediately obvious that a similar entailment holds in the case of corruption and corruptibility.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1965

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