Ancient Greek influences Flashcards
Who was Plato?
A rationalist therefore he believed that that reason could be used in order to understand things.
Taught by Socrates therefore he saw the value in Socratic questioning.
Cave analogy
Prisoners - represent ordinary people) are chained facing a wall in a cave.
Behind them is a fire which casts shadows on the wall (these shadows represent our perceptions of the physical world).
The prisoners think these shadows are reality, because that’s all they ever experience.
One day, a prisoner is freed (this freed prisoner represents the philosopher). Once he gets used to the brightness, he sees the fire and the real objects that cast the shadows.
The freed prisoner then goes outside the cave. Once accustomed to the light, he is able to look at the objects (real objects represent the Forms) and the sun itself (the sun represents the Form of the good).
If the freed prisoner were returned to the cave, his eyes would no longer be used to the darkness and he’d be unable to discern the shadows on the cave wall. If he told the other prisoners what he saw, the other prisoners would think he’d had gone mad.
Issues with the cave analogy
There is no evidence of another realm of existence.
Having a group of being ‘who know’ and a group of people who are ignorant is too simplistic; Plato can be seen as an elitist.
Our senses must be used in order to survive.
How does Ockham’s razor disprove the theory of forms?
If we can explain everything empirically, then Plato’s theory of Forms adds unnecessary complexity to our understanding of the world.
Form of the Good
Represented as the sun as it illuminates all the other forms (such as the world of appearances that we are in).
Contains the ‘perfect’ version of everything.
Is immutable and absolute.
Plato believes that we have an innate sense of knowing these forms as our souls have seen them before.
Issues with the Form of the Good
It is vague seeing as we now have more scientific and empirical evidence.
Plato may be suggesting that new inventions exist before they existed and that extinct things still exist.
Who was Aristotle?
Was an empiricist therefore believed that we could use evidence and the world around us to learn about things.
The theory of four causes
Material cause: what is it made of?
Formal cause: what are its characteristics/ form?
Efficient cause: how did it come about?
Final cause - what is its purpose/telos?
Assessing the four causes
There is an element of common sense seeing as most objects conform.
The focus on purpose helps to assess whether something is good or not.
However, Aristotle’s claim is subjective as an object’s purpose may change with each point of view.
The Prime Mover
Aristotle noted how everything moves from potentiality to actuality therefore concluding that there must be something immutable that results in this change.
The Prime Mover is eternal, perfect and impassive - it cannot be aware of the world as it attracts good/perfect towards its direction.
e.g. a cat is drawn to the milk.
Advantages of the prime mover
It is more difficult to believe in a God therefore belief in an impassive mover seems more logical.
After all, we can clearly see that everything moves and changes.
The Prime Mover removes the problem of evil as it is impassive so can’t cause evil.
Disadvantages of the Prime Mover
Humans may just be giving things purpose as part if human nature and construct.
Aristotle makes a fallacy of composition as he assumes that the whole world must have a final cause.
Science can contradict his argument - Big Bang Theory.
Plato’s understanding of reality is successful
Empirical knowledge can be flawed - Heraclitus, prisoners believe shadows are real, logical reasoning based on philosophical reasoning rather than senses.
Theory of forms explains why we recognize essential elements of something - collective understanding of beauty.
He encourages us to question things in order to learn - Heraclitus, soccratic questioning.
Plato’s understanding of reality is unsuccessful
How do we know that there is not an ideal form of an ideal form… infinite regression.
Too abstract and weak distinction between people who know and people who are ignorant - ‘I think therefore I am’
Aristotle’s third man argument
What does Heraclitus prove?
‘a man never steps in a river twice’
The world is constantly changing around us meaning we may not always be able to rely on empirical evidence.
What is Aristotle’s third man argument?
Reduces Plato down to absurdity, if we have a collection of large things and their form ‘largeness’ then we should consider the collection of things large as well as their form ‘largeness’ itself large.
We would need to refer to an infinite amount of forms to simply make one judgment.
What is Hume’s response to Plato’s form of the good?
Hume responds that we can actually create the idea of perfection in our minds even if we have never experienced it.
We take our concept of ‘imperfect’ and simply conceive of its negation: ‘not imperfect’ to gain the concept of ‘perfect’.
What does Mcgrath point out about modern Christian philosophers?
Science can tell us the what but not the why.
It cannot answer questions about purpose and therefore cannot be used to disregard the existence of purpose.
