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Unlike anti‐evidentialism, rational theism requires one to provide philosophically good evidence, on the basis of which one can rationally believe that God exists. Aquinas leads us to expect a posteriori demonstration of God's existence in which he argues that sense‐perceptible things, events, or states of affairs cannot be satisfactorily explained otherwise than on the basis of the existence of a being that is plausibly identifiable as God. Aquinas's five arguments for the existence of God are examined, two of them in detail, (ascribed to Aristotle's Physics and Metaphysics) in which Aristotle undertakes to prove God's existence on the basis of motion. The analysis develops the hypothesis that motion is to be explained in terms of self‐movers, and that all motion is ultimately to be explained in terms of a cosmic first self‐mover and a separated, altogether immovable first mover.

This chapter discusses the place of energy in world history. It examines historical milestones—such as the rise of larger populations organized with greater social complexity into nation-states and supranational collectives, and enjoying a higher quality of life—in terms of dominant energy sources and leading prime movers, as well as the most important socioeconomic consequences of these technical changes. It also considers grand patterns in the consumption of energy throughout history, focusing on the long-term relationship between human accomplishments and dominant energy sources and changing prime movers in terms of energy eras and transitions. Finally, it outlines trends that have accompanied the growth of unit power of inanimate prime movers and the accumulation of their total capacity; transformations of the fossil-fuel era including new structures of social relations; imperatives of energy needs and uses; and the importance of harnessing energies and controlling their conversion to supply.

This chapter discusses the prime movers and fuels that drove advances in manufacturing techniques, including those in metallurgy, in preindustrial societies. Some of the conversions involving prime movers and fuels helped energize the initial stages of modern industrialization. Two principal roads led to higher outputs and better efficiencies: multiplication of small forces, especially with the application of animate energy, and technical innovation, which introduced new energy conversions or increased the efficiencies of established processes. The chapter first considers the kinds, capacities, and limits of all traditional prime movers—human and animal muscles, wind, and water—as well as the combustion of phytomass fuels, mostly wood and charcoal made from it, before analyzing the uses of prime movers and fuels in critical segments of traditional economies: food preparation, provision of heat and light, land and waterborne transportation, construction, and color and ferrous metallurgy.

This chapter discusses the evolution in uses of fossil fuels, primary electricity, and renewable energy. It first considers the transition from phytomass fuels to fossil fuels and how it resulted in the substantial increase in per capita consumption of energy. It then explores the beginnings and diffusion of coal extraction, the replacement of charcoal by metallurgical coke, and the introduction of steam engines and oil and internal combustion engines. It also looks at technical innovations brought by the transition from phytomass fuels to fossil fuels and from animate to mechanical prime movers, focusing on trends in the production of coal, hydrocarbons, and electricity as well as renewable energy and the use of prime movers in transportation.

This chapter investigates the operation of the feminine symptom in Aristotle’s various account of motion. The phenomenon of motion is considered at many different sites: the movements of the heavens and their relationship to the prime mover; the transition from circular heavenly movement to rectilinear yet cyclical movement on earth and the sun’s role therein; the upward and downward movement toward proper place of the elements; the motion of animals with an especial focus on involuntary motions and the operation of aleatory matter. Gendered tropes are examined in all these contexts. Aristotle’s definition of motion in terms of potentiality and actuality is also analyzed.

This piece offers an edition, translation, and analysis of a newly discovered text by Yaḥyā Ibn ʿAdī, a leading Aristotelian of the Baghdad school in the tenth century. It briefly discusses what Aristotle meant, at the end of the Physics, by saying that the Prime Mover is “in” the outermost heaven. Ibn ʿAdī argues, in part through an exhaustive discussion of the senses of the word “in,” that God is in the sphere only in the sense that an object of intellection is in an intellect. This solution is discussed against the background of ancient commentaries on the same passage.

Traditional societies depended on biofuels and animate power from draft animals and human labor. The energy transition reduced biomass fuels to a globally marginal role, as fossil fuel extraction and electricity generation provided abundant and affordable energy. Consequences of this supply were magnified by conversions of fuels and electricity in new prime movers (first steam engines, and then internal combustion engines, electric lights, and motors). Indeed, they have nearly eliminated animate power, resulting in mechanization of agriculture and industrial production, in the rise of mass mobility, and in the deployment of electronic devices throughout the entire economy. Higher average per capita energy supply has been even more impressive when steady gains in conversion efficiency, and the resulting declines of energy intensities of products and services, are taken into account.

This chapter begins by discussing how St. Thomas Aquinas aligns God with Aristotle’s prime mover wherein the existence of God puts a stop to worldly endlessness. The doctrine of plurality jeopardizes Aquinas’ theological infrastructure, since there is no starting point for God to occupy if worlds have existed from eternity. The chapter also examines Cusa’s one universe and its structure—its plural worlds that do not only interact with but also compose one another. Cusa’s cosmology seems like a Christianized Atomism, consisting of a staggering plurality of worlds, plus God, but minus the unqualified “infinity.” In addition, Giordano Bruno’s neo-Cusan multiverse claims that the universe is neither monistic, dualistic, nor pluralistic; rather it is irreducibly “multimodal” as a result of its infinite multiplicity, with the whole reflected in each of its parts.

The task of this chapter is to delineate the role of culture in transformations. First, two conceptualizations of culture are introduced: socio-psychological (syndrome of attitudes) and semiotic (web of meanings). Second, the problem of prime movers of transformations is discussed: are they material-economic or cultural? Or perhaps both, in a complex interaction? Third, the significance of agency is highlighted. The point is not to study abstract cultural (ideational) ‘forces’ to determine their relative impact, but rather to reconstruct specific meaning-creating actions of concrete agents and try to gauge their influence on people’s attitudes. Fourth, the different role of culture in three stages of transformation (breakdown, power transfer, and consolidation of a new system) is examined. Both conceptualizations of culture are utilized. Finally, a theory of cultural trauma and a theory of delayed cultural countertransformation are briefly introduced.

This chapter outlines the design of the current study. It discusses my underlying logic for scoping energy system change with theory-building in the form of (1) a framework on intervention that operationalizes insights from the previous chapter and (2) conceptual models of structural readiness. A brief review then follows of related, global developments to provide broader context for the cases. The chapter concludes with a preview of the transitions that will be discussed in depth in subsequent chapters. This book draws on my research of four national energy system transitions covering the period since 1970. I selected a timeframe that reflected a common context of international events which preceded as well as followed the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979. Such framing allowed me to trace policy and technology learning over multiple decades for different cases. I completed field work for this project primarily between 2010 and 2012, with updates continuing through to the time this book went to press. I selected cases from more than 100 countries in the International Energy Agency (IEA) databases. The ones that I chose represented countries which demonstrated an increase of 100% or more in domestic production of a specific, low carbon energy and the displacement of at least 15 percentage points in the energy mix by this same, low carbon energy relative to traditional fuels for the country and sector of relevance. I utilized adoption and displacement metrics to consider both absolute and relative changes. Final cases reflect a diversity of energy types and, to some extent, differences in the socio-economic and geographic attributes of the countries. The technologies represent some of the more economically-competitive substitutes for fossil fuels. It’s important to emphasize that the number of cases was neither exhaustive nor fully representative. Instead, the cases reflect an illustrative group of newer, low carbon energy technologies for in depth evaluation. Each of the cases shares certain, basic similarities. These include a national energy system comprised of actors, inputs, and outputs with systemic architecture connecting the constituent parts in a complex network of energy-centered flows over time–including extraction, production, sale, delivery, regulation, and consumption.