Topic 2: Aristotle and Causation.

Summary Diagram of Topic 2 of Philosophy. Contains detailed notes and objections to Aristotle's theories.

?
View mindmap
  • 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.
      • 2. Formal Cause
        • Immanent Shape
      • 1. Material Cause
        • What it is made from
          • Wood in a chair, the thing that makes it exist.
      • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.
  • 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.
      • 2. Formal Cause
        • Immanent Shape
      • 1. Material Cause
        • What it is made from
          • Wood in a chair, the thing that makes it exist.
      • 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.

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Religious Studies resources:

See all Religious Studies resources »See all Philosophy resources »