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Agnostic or Atheist?

Posted by xJane on January 24th, 2008 at 6:19 pm · 2 Comments

I ran into this question today while writing an essay in which I made mention of Aristotle. I’ve often heard/thought that he was an atheist, but part of me wanted to say “agnostic”. Perhaps he did believe in a Higher Power, as AA would say, but he was profoundly concerned with an ethics that did not necessitate a belief in the supernatural. He wanted to devise an atheist belief system. Does that make him an atheist? Would calling him an atheist make him sound militant? This kinda goes along with the gender thing: is it appropriate to call someone an atheist in a manner which neither praises nor vilifies such a designation?

Tags: Atheism

2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Kevin // Jan 25, 2008 at 6:12 am

    I wouldn’t say that he was either an atheist or an agnostic (the mighty Aristotle would probably have never claimed to be agnostic about anything – then there is his Unmoved Mover which is pretty godlike).
    I do agree with you, however, that A’s ethics is disconnected from heavenly decrees and the sort (except when the good life is compared to divinity). It is much more focused on “rationality”…
    I think you could describe his ethics as non-Christian and in doing so say that atheists or non-believers could make good use of it. I don’t think ‘atheism’, however, is a good substitute for ‘non-Christian’ – especially when talking about the Greeks.
    And to the final question – I do think calling something ‘atheistic’ gives people the wrong idea. “Atheist ethics’ would probably be thought of as being against theist ethics instead of separate from them.

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