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Aristotle's ideas about cause and purpose in relation to God
Topic: Ancient Greek influences on philosophy of religion
OCR Philosophy of Religion
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- Created by: Niamhableful
- Created on: 15-05-12 11:29
On Aristotle
- Greek philosopher - student of Plato
- However, rejected some platonic concepts such as duality and Plato's dismissal of the empirical method
- In comparision to Plato, Aristotle's philosophy was more 'Earth-based' or grounded
- Placed emphasis on the empirical method and sensory experience - key to discovering and understanding the natural world as knowledge rests on careful observation
- Aristotle's work is characterized by careful observation, reflection on and categorisation of phenomena
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Aristotle's theory of cause and purpose
- Causality one of Aristotle's key questions
- Recognised multi-layered explanation of existence
- Sought to combine various types of causality into theory of cause by outlining the four causes of a thing
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Four forms of cause
- Material cause: addresses what something is made out of
- Scientific approach to causality as science often looks to take apart something to better understand what it is
- Efficient cause: activity that makes osmething happen
- Transforms potential of something's material cause into actuality
- Leads to the creation of something new
- Formal cause: developed formal cause to term the form something has
- Allows a thing to be identified when partnered with efficient and material cause
- Final cause: something's purpose; its reason for existing
- Telos - final purpose of something
- The soul is the formal and final cause of a thing
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Aristotle on body and soul
- Soul is the pattern of humanity - each unique person has a unique pattern and a unique soul
- Soul is a substance, an essence, a real thing
- The body of the creature is made of matter while the soul provided its form
- Believed that the form of a creature was its characteristics, covering function, including sensation, movement and reproduction
- Soul is the strcture of the body that dictates the way the matter of the body is organised
- There exists of hierarchy of souls - plant (vegetative) souls at the bottom, animal souls in the middle and human souls at the top
- Vegetative souls provided the power to gain nutrition, grow and reproduce
- Animal souls provide the same but in addition give the ability to move
- The human soul does much the same but provides the ability to reason - Aristotle believed this was unique to humanity
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The Prime Mover
- Aristotle came to the realisation the universe was in a constant state of change and motion
- Considered that there might be an infinite chain of change and causation
- However, he rejected this notion as an infinite chain would still require some outside cause
- Postulated some first cause needed to begin change and cause in the Universe - the prime mover which would cause movement and change in all other things but not in a physical manner
- PM is non-physical - it causes without being affected in order to remain separate from the chain
- Perfectly good as the PM is pure actuality - badness is an inherent lacking
- PM would attract things towards tiself and is the object of everything - the final cause of movement is desire for God as everything else in the universe is drawn towards it
- PM exists independently with no depedence - eternal and immaterial - necessary NOT contingent
- Eternal due to lack of potential for change - cannot change therefore cannot cease to exist; therefore, if existence, must always exist
- PM would think only of its own perfection; intellect most God-like part of humanity as it is pure contemplation akin to the PM
- Aristotle's stance woven into Christian theology
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Evaluating Aristotle - strengths
- Compatible with science - accepts empirical view of scientific study
- Ideas of cause explain varied level of human experience - what forms of an object is not its sole cause/purpose
- Almost unites scientific and religious theories - prime mover theroy seems almost logical
- Provides a starting point for explaining the relationship between body and soul
- Justifies education/continual advancement of humanity - intellect
- Lays foundation of modern science
- Argues truth and understanding can be found in our world
- PM provides a specific cause for the universe
- Grounded and holds positive appraisal of the human perspective
- Gives a position human purpose
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Evaluating Aristotle - weaknesses
- Highly contradictory works which lack clarity - difficult to evaluate as its unclear as to what Aristotle meant
- Some criticise isolation of science as the only source of knowledge - religious experience, intuition etc.
- Others disagree with the idea of the universe having a purpose at all
- Questionable existence of the prime mover - is the universe simply random?
- Theists question the idea of a 'distant' God - can God be discovered through more than just the consideration of nature
- Rejection of dualism may be incorrect
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