Ancient Philosophers - Aristotle

Question 1

aristotle’s understanding of reality

Answer 1

Aristotle considered at the beginning of his Physics that we can only know something in as much detail as we can explain it.

quotation from Physics
potentiality vs actuality
marble/statue example
potency and act are distinct

Question 2

quotation from Physics

Answer 2

“Knowledge is the object of our inquiry, and men do not think they know a thing till they have grasped the ‘why’ of it”.
- For Aristotle, the word he used for the ‘why’ of something was aition, which has been translated as ‘cause’, although explanation could also be used.

Question 3

potentiality vs actuality

Answer 3

Aristotle draws a distinction between potentiality and actuality.
He applies this to the process of change (or motion).
Change is simply the process by which an object acquires a new form (very different from Plato’s idea of Form). The object has the potentiality to become something different, and change is the actualisation of the potential of one form of matter to become another form of matter.

Question 4

marble/statue example

Answer 4

For example, the block of marble has the potential to become an actual statue.
The statue is latent within the block of marble – the block of marble has the capacity to become a statue.

Question 5

potency and act are distinct

Answer 5

It is important to note that potency and act are distinct.
- The marble cannot be both a block and the statue at the same time.
- In another example a piece of wood cannot be both potentially on fire and actually on fire at the same time – so change is this movement between potential and actual.

Question 6

what does Aristotle draw a distinction between

Answer 6

potentiality
actuality

Question 7

of potentiality and actuality

Answer 7

potentially and actuality are distinct

an object has the potentiality to become something different

change is the actualisation of the potential of form of matter to become another form of matter

Question 8

What’s the ancient Greek word for cause/explanation, used by Aristotle?

Answer 8

aition

Question 9

aristotle’s four causes

Answer 9

As an object cannot be both simultaneously potential and actual, how does it move from one to the other? Aristotle says it needs an agent to move it, which he called the efficient cause.

material cause
explaining the ‘how’
beyond material/efficient causes
formal cause
formal cause - statue example

Question 10

what are the four causes

Answer 10

efficient
material
formal
final

Question 11

material cause

Answer 11

The agent must be in a state of actuality, not potentiality. It must exist to be a cause of change in an object.
- You need actual water to effect the change of an acorn into an oak tree.
From this, we can see how Aristotle got the first two of his causes – there must be matter, which undergoes the change from one form to another. In other words, if someone asks for an explanation of it, we can say what it is made of – e.g. the statue is made of marble. This would be then the material cause.

Question 12

explaining the ‘how’

Answer 12

But as we have seen, this would not be a total explanation of the thing for Aristotle – he would want to know how the statue got its particular form.
This ‘how’ is what Aristotle called the efficient cause. In the case of the statue, the sculptor acted upon the stone with his chisel to make the potential statue in the marble an actual statue.

Question 13

beyond material/efficient causes

Answer 13

Aristotle did not believe we could stop with just the material and efficient causes (the what and the how).
He believed that as the material has undergone a change of form from a potential thing to an actual thing, that part of its explanation was what the characteristics of it were.

Question 14

formal cause

Answer 14

If we were to ask a person ‘what makes you the person you are?’ they would probably not list of the elements that compose them, such as carbon. They would probably talk about their upbringing or give a character trait, such as ‘I’m happy-go-lucky’.
So we need to add another cause to get a full explanation of a thing – we need to talk about its characteristics – eg. a chair is more than just some wood, it is an object with four legs and a space to sit. Aristotle called this the formal cause.

Question 15

explanation of the final cause

Answer 15

This idea of a purposive cause is given by Aristotle because something’s aim or goal is also an important part of an explanation of the thing.
Aristotle gives the example of the final cause of walking, medicine, purging, surgical instruments etc. as all being for health.
For Aristotle, the aim of something can be seen as its greatest good. This is brought out in our use of language when we ask of an object ‘what is it good for?’.

Question 15

formal cause - statue example

Answer 15

The formal cause would be its particular qualities of marble sculpted into the form of a body, head etc.
The formal cause of something is the ‘form’ of the thing – the pattern which makes it what it is.
- In the case of a building, it would be the blueprint.
This is not as easily understandable as the other causes and has been seen as slightly controversial.
But clearly, much debate surrounds the notion of a form and many agree that Aristotle’s notion is no less flawed than Plato’s.

Question 16

emphasis on the telos

Answer 16

This emphasis on the telos (the goal of something) is a key part of Aristotle’s thought.
For Aristotle, change is the actualisation of something’s potential with respect to its potentiality. In other words, something can only become what it has in it to be.
- So a lump of wood can become a bed and a block of marble can become a statue. But a piece of iron cannot become a wombat, nor can a human become a bird.

Question 17

achieving the telos

Answer 17

The potential of something may be latent until something else acts upon it.
But if that thing acts upon it in a directed manner and brings about its potential, then we can say the telos of something has been achieved.

Question 18

modern science - efficient cause

Answer 18

modern science focuses on the efficient cause when explaining the physical world. In fact, the final cause is not considered

Question 19

using teleological reasons

Answer 19

When we are talking about the human world, it makes sense to talk about why something happened in terms of a final cause. For example:
- Why did John stay in last night rather than go to Mary’s party? He wanted to avoid seeing Jane who he dislikes.
- Why did you make that cake for Peter? I wanted to cheer him up.
These are teleological reasons – they make sense in terms of what goal someone had in mind. We would not get a very good understanding of those actions if we left them out.

Question 20

aristotle’s four causes

Answer 20

material - what something is made up
efficient - the agent that causes something to change form
formal - the ‘form’ of something (its properties)
final - the aim (telos) of something

Question 21

what cause does modern science focus on when explaining the physical world?

Answer 21

efficient cause

Question 22

what are the first three causes of a chair

Answer 22

formal - an object with four legs and a space to sit
efficient - carpenter
material - wood/metal/plastic

Question 23

what’s the ancient Greek word for the ultimate aim of something

Answer 23

telos

Question 24

the four causes - statue example

Answer 24

material - marble
efficient - sculptor
formal - head, body etc.
final - decoration/commemoration

Question 25

aristotle - the prime mover

Answer 25

The Prime Mover is the logical result of the application of the final cause to the whole universe.

some things are not changing
the motion of heavenly spheres
the principle of the prime mover
prime mover: cause of motion
prime mover vs form of the good
rationalism vs empiricism

Question 26

some things are not changing

Answer 26

Remember the movement from potentiality to actuality is going on in all things – in other words, change is happening to them.

Most things are changing (being generated and being destroyed), but some things are not changing in that way.

Question 27

motion of heavenly spheres

Answer 27

Aristotle thinks here of the heavenly spheres (containing the planets and fixed stars, which were considered to be nested around each other about the earth).

These are only undergoing changes in the sense of cyclical motion. They are not (according to Aristotle) being generated or destroyed.

This is because their movement is the reality behind time itself. For Aristotle, time cannot be destructible – it is uniform and everlasting.

Question 28

principle of the prime mover

Answer 28

The movement of the spheres causes the change in the universe – each sphere causes the one inside it to move until you get to the outermost sphere, which has to be moved by something which is not itself moved (or it would need an explanation for its own movement).

This is called the Primum Mobile or the Prime Mover.

Question 29

prime mover: the cause of motion

Answer 29

The object of desire moves other things without itself moving (think of how a saucer of milk draws a cat to it) – in this way the prime mover is the cause of the motion of all other things.

They are being drawn to it as to their own final end.

Question 30

prime mover vs form of the Good

Answer 30

Both are linked in the domain of ethics:
- Prime Mover: through the idea of everything being drawn to its own purpose.
- Form of the Good: as the means by which everything that exists is known.

The Prime Mover is based on arguments that appeal to a posteriori (observed) evidence; the Form of the Good on a priori arguments.

They are both ‘ultimates’, which might appeal to non-theistic deists – impersonal sources of reality, arrived at through philosophical speculation rather than faith.

Question 31

rationalism vs empiricism

Answer 31

How dependent on our senses are we for knowledge?
- Empiricists argue that sense experience is the ultimate source of knowledge.
- Rationalists argue that concepts are independent of sense-experience.

Therefore, it is a debate in the field of epistemology (philosophy of knowledge).

The empiricist Hume says that ideas do not exist in themselves independently from objects other than as a relation between objects.

Question 32

prime mover vs Form of the Good

Answer 32

prime mover > based on a posteriori evidence
> ethics - the idea of everything being drawn to its own purpose

form of the good > based on a priori arguments
> ethical element > the means by which everything that exists is known

Question 33

which empiricist says that ideas do not exist in themselves independently from objects other than as a relation between objects

Answer 33

hume

Question 34

what is the prime mover

Answer 34

the primary cause of the universe, which moves other things without being moved itself

Question 35

the movement from ________ to ________ is going on in all things - in other words, change is happening to them

Answer 35

potentiality
actuality