Trying to describe the activity of Aristotle’s active intellect, we will sooner or later realize that we cannot find its right description, because Aristotle did not provide for one. He left us with many irreconcilable statements and questions with no answers. In the famous text Aristotle’s Two Intellects: a Modest Proposal Victor Caston claims that Aristotle did not describe the activity, because there simply is no such activity and we should therefore identify nous poietikos with God, because God too does nothing. Trying to find this lacking description is like going on a wild goose chase – Caston argues. In my text I will show that his solution, albeit tempting, is in fact a kind of “dissolution” and that a wild goose chase, although for many doomed to failure, can be fruitful. I will do so by presenting three groups or clusters of views on active intellect which – I believe – are philosophically significant. Caston’s proposal will be one of them, but not the privileged one. These three types of interpretations will hopefully provide us with an imagery that will help us somewhat come to terms with Aristotle’s succinctness.
W artykule poddane zostały analizie helleńskie koncepcje dotyczące antropomorfizacji bóstw i nasze współczesne poglądy – zarówno te popularne, jak i naukowe – na temat greckiej wiary w możliwość przybierania przez bogów postaci ludzkich. W tekście podjęto próby odpowiedzi na następujące pytania: Czy Hellenowie konsekwentnie wierzyli w bóstwa w ludzkiej formie? Czy uproszczone wizerunki bóstw greckich z atrybutami, które znamy z opracowań mitologii, są dziełem wyłącznie późniejszych epok, czy też to sami Grecy przyczynili się do powstania uproszczeń? Okazuje się, że choć bóstwa greckie przedstawiano w ludzkich postaciach i antropomorficzne bóstwo pod postacią statuy było trwałym elementem kultu, to jednak paradoksalnie wierzono, że boski kształt pozostaje dla człowieka nieuchwytny. Znane dziś powszechnie postaci greckich bóstw, sprowadzone do określonych wizerunków ze specyficznymi atrybutami i wyznaczonym patronatem nad poszczególnymi dziedzinami życia, nie są wcale dziełem późniejszych epok, gdyż wprowadzili je już starożytni greccy twórcy, począwszy od samego Homera.
EN
The article analyses the Hellenic conceptions related to anthropomorphisation of deities, as well as our modern views – both popular and scientific – related to Greek belief in the possibility that gods could exist in human form. The author tries to answer the following questions: Did the Hellenes consistently believe in deities as being in human form? Are the simplified images of Greek deities, with attributes known from studies of mythology, the result of the subsequent epochs only? Or maybe the Greeks contributed to creation of such simplifications. It appears that although Greek deities were presented in human form and anthropomorphic gods in the form of a statue were a permanent element of the cult, it was paradoxically believed that a divine shape was elusive for a human being. The presently well known Greek deities, with their own characteristic appearances, specific attributes and patronages over given areas of life, are not the invention of the subsequent periods in Greek history. They were introduced by ancient Greek authors, with Homer himself at the head.
This text aims to show that the core of human divinity according to Aristotle is exercising the divine mind for its own sake. Being happy and thus divine is auto-teleological, and must not be reduced to any sort of instrumental value. This reading of Aristotle excludes the theist interpretations of Prime Mover as well as the attempts at identifying the human mind with God, mainly because both these (different) interpretations seem to make auto-teleological bios theoretikos impossible. The first do this by introducing the divine provision which makes people act for God’s sake and not for their own sake. The others reduce the special status of humans by taking away the divine part, in my opinion being the sine qua non condition of the concept of human divinity. All the interpretations of human divinity which I have presented above can be useful nowadays in the ethical, (bio)ethical, social or even political discourse. This shows that the history of philosophy is not only about the past, but also about the future.
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