Topic 2: Aristotle and Causation.
Summary Diagram of Topic 2 of Philosophy. Contains detailed notes and objections to Aristotle's theories.
- Created by: Jenson Truckle
- Created on: 10-12-17 16:32
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- Aristotle and Causation
- The four Causes
- 4. Final Cause
- Purpose
- A bowl is made for a reason.
- Everything has a purpose - even humans. Telos - everything in nature has a purpose.
- A good person fulfills their purpose. A good horse is different to a good person, Some people are just good at being people.
- BUT some parts of human body are not used - male ******.
- The Prime Mover
- Contemplates its own perfection
- Not creator God
- Acts by attraction
- The prime mover is the final cause.
- Purpose
- 2. Formal Cause
- Immanent Shape
- 1. Material Cause
- What it is made from
- Wood in a chair, the thing that makes it exist.
- What it is made from
- Hume - the curiosity is in how the changes come about.
- Aristotle's question is not only how things cause one thing 'x causes y' but in how x and y exist.
- 4. Final Cause
- Empiricism
- Aristotle taught that we learn things through observation and practice - in objection to Plato.
- He differentiates between 'knowing how' to do something and being able to do it.
- Aristotle taught that we learn things through observation and practice - in objection to Plato.
- Objections:
- Plato
- Unclear if FoG is conscious - PM is.
- PM and FoG are both assumed to exist as explanation to why things exist.
- Scientific Objections - We know that the 4 causes don't work - but he built a basis for modern science.
- Philosophical objections
- The Big Bang theory - serious doubt on a God who brings the world into motion by attraction.
- Purpose = mental intention. I have a purpose for the ingredients in a cake, but they themselves do not have their own intentions or purposes.
- Naming something doesn't explain it. Efficient cause is too broad to be informative. It doesn't tell us where the thing began.
- Fallacy of composition - error of thinking what is true of the part is true of the whole. Humans have a mother, but all of humanity does not have a SINGLE common mother.
- Abrahamic God is all loving and caring - No point in Praying to aristotle's God.
- Existentialism - the universe does not have a purpose as Aristotle says. Evolution is random (random selection) and it not purposive as shown by Darwin. Russell - the universe is just there.
- There are many reasons and causes to change, it is difficult to see how one prime mover can cause them all.
- Plato
- The four Causes
- 3. Efficient Cause
- What brings it about
- A statue is brought about by a sculptor.
- The four Causes
- 4. Final Cause
- Purpose
- A bowl is made for a reason.
- Everything has a purpose - even humans. Telos - everything in nature has a purpose.
- A good person fulfills their purpose. A good horse is different to a good person, Some people are just good at being people.
- BUT some parts of human body are not used - male ******.
- The Prime Mover
- Contemplates its own perfection
- Not creator God
- Acts by attraction
- The prime mover is the final cause.
- Purpose
- 2. Formal Cause
- Immanent Shape
- 1. Material Cause
- What it is made from
- Wood in a chair, the thing that makes it exist.
- What it is made from
- Hume - the curiosity is in how the changes come about.
- Aristotle's question is not only how things cause one thing 'x causes y' but in how x and y exist.
- 4. Final Cause
- What brings it about
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