PHILOSOPHY: Aristotle
- Created by: Freddy Prentis
- Created on: 10-06-17 20:25
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- ARISTOTLE
- Key Terms
- Cause: The reason why something exists
- Efficient: The agent that caused that thing to exist
- Good: Doesn't need improvement
- Necessary: The belief that the prime mover has to exist
- Telos: What things are made to do, why they are brought into being.
- Four Causes
- Material Cause: What something is made of
- Formal Cause: What a thing is
- Efficient Cause: The agent that brings something g into existence
- Final Cause: What a thing is made to do/ its purpose
- Prime Mover
- Pure Actuality: The prime mover cannot be moved otherwise it is not the prime mover
- Simple: Cannot be a complex entity such as human beings as complexity imply s complex form and motion
- Good: The prime mover cannot change therefore it cannot be improved
- Potentiality: The raw material
- Actuality: What it actually is its form
- Strengths
- EMPIRICAL: Aristotle's approach has been adopted as the basis of the scientific world. By analysing the causes of things we can learn what things are and why they behave the way they do. it is the basis of what is called the scientific method
- SCIENTIFIC METHOD: This has paved the scientific world of how we experience, observe it and make hypothesise to be tested. This has revolutionised the way we think
- EXAMPLE: The world was though of to be flat but has been proven to be spherical
- EXAMPLE: The sun does not orbit the earth as was thought in previous years
- EXAMPLE: We evolved from previous living organisms rather than believing we were placed here by god. Thanks to Darwin this discovery was found
- EXPERIENTIAL: Experience is the only tool we have as everything in life is done through experience. This allows it to be relate-able to everyone, also making it universal to all human beings
- REASONABLE: Looking at both Plato's and Aristotle's theories of knowledge, there is more to relate to in Aristotle s as it doesn't exclude experience, hence making it more reasonable
- REASONABLE: Looking at both Plato's and Aristotle's theories of knowledge, there is more to relate to in Aristotle s as it doesn't exclude experience, hence making it more reasonable
- Weaknesses
- INCOMPLETE: Aristotle's theory of knowledge was not complete and his own deductions based on his experiences were not always correct
- UNRELIABILITY OF EXPERIENCES: He made incorrect observations about things that could easily be discerned, for example the number of legs on a fly.
- SUPERIORITY OF REASON: The example if Democritus and his atom, exemplifies the problem of experience as a substitute for reason. Reason can consider abstract ideas in ways that experience simply cannot.
- DEMOCRITUSE'S ATOM: This was Democritus' atomic model. It was simply a round sphere with no electrons, protons, or neutrons. Democritus created the first atomic model. His contribution helped people with understanding the idea of an atom, and helped other scientists further look into the science of the atom and its generic makeup.
- CAUSATION CANT BE INFERRED: An issue with the prime mover is that Aristotle infers its existence from his four causes. however William Ockham and David Hume later argue you cannot infer a casual connection between two things you can only describe the apparent connection
- Jumping to conclusions maybe ?
- Key Terms
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