ABSTRACT
Enrico Berti and Sarah Broadie, among others, have questioned the (still) dominant reading of Aristotle, which is also the (still) dominant reading of Alexander of Aphrodisias and Averroes: that the First Cause is an exclusively final cause. Berti blames Alexander as the first to articulate in detail the “final cause only” reading. I lay out the texts showing that for Alexander the prime mover is an efficient cause. If Alexander is to be blamed, it is for turning one of the four causes into a “making cause,” like an artist. For Aristotle, I argue, “whence is the beginning of motion” need not be an efficient “maker” or artist. In fact, the prime mover’s causality for Aristotle results from its being the art in the artist’s mind. Averroes, who follows Alexander up to a point, comes closer than any ancient or modern reader to the authentic Aristotle: the prime mover is the form in the mind of the divine artist, which is the soul that moves the outermost heavens. On this point, Averroes’ reading surpasses that of the greatest ancient commentator, Alexander.
