Aristotle (The Four Causes and Prime Mover)
- Created by: Alessia
- Created on: 24-04-13 18:31
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- Aristotle
- A posteriori argument (through sense experience) we learn about the physical world
- Empirical approach
- Prime Mover
- Exists by necessity - so the prime mover cannot fail to exist
- It is not capable of change
- the prime mover is pure actuality
- He has a nature that is good: if you lack perfect goodness than you can change
- Is the final cause i.e. the ultimate explanation why things exist is without parts and indivisible
- Is the goal of all action: this is like attraction because the prime mover is the cause of all motion
- Necessary being who is eternal, transcendent and impersonal, he does not interact with the world
- Is like a leader, as the universe depends for iits existence on the prime mover
- Aristotle's understanding of the four causes/idea of casuality
- EFFICIENT CAUSE - The agent that brings something about
- SCULTPOR
- FORMAL CAUSE - The kind of thing that something is (it's form)
- SHAPE
- FINAL CAUSE - The goal or purpose that a thing moves towards
- BEAUTIFUL STATUE
- MATERIAL CAUSE - The matter from which the thing is made
- MARBLE
- These causes are used to describe explanatory factors in proper scientific explanations
- X belongs to Y (nearness - X and planet - Y)
- Z belongs to X (nearness = X and non-twinkling =Z
- Therefore Z belongs to Y
- EFFICIENT CAUSE - The agent that brings something about
- Reality is made up of several things, comprising form and matter. The matter of a thing can exist after the thing itself has ceased to exist.
- Rejected Plato's dualist approach, therefore a monist
- A posteriori argument (through sense experience) we learn about the physical world
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