Abstract

An interpretation of God as exemplary cause is in consonance with Aristotle's biological works, although in the Metaphysics Aristotle does shy away from such an interpretation. It is possible to conceive the order of the world in Aristotle as "an expression of desire of God." The rational order that is present in the universe is dependent on God, on his thought. Each organism desires to realize its form, to become intelligible, and to thus imitate God's thought. Such an interpretation of Aristotle coincides with and is completed by Aquinas's treatment of the truth as the origin and end of the universe in the Summa contra Gentiles