Il motore dell'universo : questioni di predicabilità e causalità divine nel Cinquecento aristotelico

This paper aims to discuss several examples belonging to the 16th-century Aristotelian tradition, regarding how God can be conceived and theorized as a cause towards the world. The dilemma arises f rom the distinc-tion between final cause and efficient cause, where the former seems to be more respectful of the philosophy of Aristotle himself, and the latter more appropriate to the God of religion. The problem also involves the attribution to God of predicates which He shares with the transient world, such as ens, and brings to a necessary investigation of the ontological relationship between the world, both sublunary and heavenly, and the First Principle as either its pro-ducer or its mover. Analyzing the positions of several illustrious Aristotelian philosophers of the time, this paper suggests that the will to be adherent to Aristotle’s thought tends to lead towards a necessitaristic evaluation of God’s operations and consequently of natural phenomena.