Aristotle

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Who was Aristotle
Empricist - thought knowledge was gained through sense. Plato's student however rejected dualism and Plato's understanding of the soul
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Plato vs Aristotle
Aristotle though we are being taught knowledge not recalling it. Believed is someone researched something they would gain more knowledge - known as per genus per differentia (by type and by difference / rejected the Forms - known thru soul and mind
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Materialist
Rejected the seperation of the soul and body - believes that this is the only current life.
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Aristotles' Main concerns
What is motion (change) and what causes it? What is the nature of substance (what makes a thing what it is?)?
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Answer: Form and Matter
o Aristotle's’ motion = change o Matter broad term for = nature which can become anything o Pure matter = nothing - has to have an identity o There is something beyond matter that makes a thing = form
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Aristotles' view of Forms
Aristotle form is immanent (within the limits of experience) in things Where there is change that persist through the change is matter The change indicates the loss of one ‘form’ and the adoption of anotherMotion = change Forms = chang
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Material
The things out of which an object is created
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Efficient
The way in which an object is created
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Formal
For Aristotle a form is real and it is what makes something one thing and not another Nominalism: the view that Forms/universal are general ideas or mere names that doesn’t refer to anything else in reality. Only particular instances/objects exist
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Final
(Telos/goal) for which an object is created e.g. humans do things for a reason. He used this theory for the body – everything must have a purpose in the body In his Nicomachean Ethics – argues that all humans and nature have a purpose
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The Unmoved Mover
causes motion and change without being moved. Eternal and is neccesarily good - must exist (neccesitty) caused the first cause - leader and orderer of the universe
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Characteristics
No physical body as this changes - it has potential which is not good. Has a spiritual body - form of intelligence itself only thinks of itself -created movement and change
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Aristotles' thoughts
Thought the UM attracted things by nature not out of itnerets- thought the universe = no efficient cause just there needs no other explanaition
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The UM and the Form of Good
→ The form of the good is there to explain what goodness really is – something permanent in this world of change – provides a refuge from the uncertainties of change → Unmoved mover explains change – the problem that has worried Plato and Heraclitus
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Efficent causes
questioned as it something that brings about change but we know no more than we did it the first place – fails to tell us what has happened only that something has happened
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Fallacy of Compposition
error in reasoning = assumption that what is true of the part is true of the whole = if all body parts have a purpose = doesn’t not mean that the whole body has a purpose
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Does the universe have a purpose?
Does the entire universe have a purpose e.g. the rocky lumps that serve no end and the fragments that are flying around? Evolution = blind = according to scientists = no purpose
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Human purpose vs Universal purpose
5. Existentialist has denied that the universe has any purpose – only humans do – it just exists. Bertrand Russell: ‘it is just there, and that’s all’ – Aristotle and Aquinas finding purpose where it seizes to exists
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Assumption that the UM = cause all motion and change
Many reason and causes from change = difficult to assume that the UM is behind all of this = no reason to jump to single explanation
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The big Bang theory
= cast serious doubt on a god which causes all motion. Cosmologists would say that there is no reason for God
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Religious view: different to Abrhamic God
Jews, Christian and Muslims: God cares supremely about the universe he created and he interacts with it. Cares about the world – desires good and cares about suffering. Universe has no purpose but God has a purpose for the universe.
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Aristotle discovered
==> The physical world is constantly in ‘motion’ and ‘change’ ==> The planets seem to be moving eternally ==> Change or motion is always caused by something ==> Objects in the world are in a state of potentiality or actuality.
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Conclusion
there exists something that causes the change without being moved and this thing is eternal.
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Potentilaity vs Actuality
• If something can change then it exists in one ‘actual’ state and has the ‘potential’ to become another state. E.g. a Cow is ‘potentially’ a piece of roast beef, an ‘actual’ child is ‘potentially’ an adult.
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The cause of this...
• Therefore to start these processes of motion all off, there must be a being (the PM) that doesn’t have the ‘potential’ to change but is fully ‘actuality’. This is because if it had potentiality as well then this would mean it would be able to chang
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Problems with the PM
The relationship between the PM and the universe is unclear. Aristotle’s PM is transcendent (i.e. above and beyond the universe) and cannot interact in the universe in the way that believers often talk about God’s activity in the world.
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2-
The idea that the PM causes the universe and events in it through ‘thinking’ is vague and unclear.
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Aristotle’s God is perfect, so it can only think of itself. The PM can only know itself and can’t know or have a part in our lives.
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This PM seems to be unloving as it plays no part in our lives, would the cause of the universe be like that?
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Is there really a final cause or purpose to the universe? Does there have to be a cause of the universe, can’t it just be there? (Bertrand Russell).
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Aristotle and Christianity
• His ideas had a lot of influence to the development of Christian philosophy and the arguments for the existence of God. • There are a lot of similarities between the PM and God, indeed some have even said this is God. •
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+
he Prime Mover theory influenced medieval thinking about God. • The philosophy of Aristotle is used to explain Roman Catholic beliefs about the presence of Jesus in the bread and wine used in the Eucharist service, the Mass.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

Plato vs Aristotle

Back

Aristotle though we are being taught knowledge not recalling it. Believed is someone researched something they would gain more knowledge - known as per genus per differentia (by type and by difference / rejected the Forms - known thru soul and mind

Card 3

Front

Materialist

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Aristotles' Main concerns

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

Answer: Form and Matter

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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