Ancient Greek Philosophy

Plato

How do we gain true knowledge?
A priori knowledge
Demiurge created the world with physical matter
Used the Forms as a model
The Forms are the innate ideas of things that we have
The highest Form is the Form of the Good
Forms are perfect
Anything physical cannot be perfect because it is in a constant state of decay
The Analogy of the Cave
The outside world represented the Realm of the Forms
The escaping prisoner represented the philosopher who questions how we gain true knowledge
The world in which we live is a shadow of the Realm of the Forms
The other prisoners's reaction represents the ignorance society has towards new ideas of how to gain true knowledge

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Telos - Goal, the final purpose, or aim of a thing
A posteriori knowledge
The Forms exist within the object itself
Where Plato thought that the natural worlds was a reflection of the world of the Forms, Aristotle though that what was in the human soul was simply a reflection of the real world
Reality is made up of Form and matter
Form - A thing's specific characteristics
Matter - the "stuff" that a thing is made of
The matter of a thing can exist after the thing itself has ceased to exist
Material Cause - what something is made out of
Efficient Cause - the thing that made it e.g. an artist making a painting
Formal Cause - the kind of thing that something is i.e. it's Form
Final Cause - the goal or purpose that a thing moves towards
Aristotle belived that the soul is the Form of the body - the soul is simply the sum total of operations of a human being

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