Ancient philosophical influences Flashcards
What is Aristotles main argument?
- The physical world can give us information
- Empiricism is the superior way to gain knowledge
- Observation of the natural world using the senses
What is Aristotles understanding of reality?
- Something can have multiple explanations for its existence
SO made the 4 causes…
Material cause
What something is made from
Formal cause
The shape of something
Efficient cause
How something came to be
Final cause
Somethings purpose or end goal/telos
When does Aristotle feel as if something can be deemed as good?
Once it has fulfilled its telos
What is the prime mover?
What causes potentiality to move to actuality.
It causes the constant chain of cause and effect.
It is pure actuality
It causes change and motion as it attracts things towards it
Actuality
The fulfilment of a potential
Potentiality
The capacity for something to happen
What are the 5 conclusions about the prime mover?
- It doesn’t depend on anything else to exist
- It is eternal
- It is perfectly good
- It is beyond time and space (transcendent)
- It is the final cause of everything in the universe
What is Platos main argument?
- This world is an imitation of another
- This world is constantly changing so cannot hold true knowledge
- There must be a real where things are eternal and unchanging (The Realm of the Forms) which we can gain knowledge of using reason
What is Platos theory of the forms?
The things we experience through our senses are imitations of their ideal forms.
Forms are unchanging and eternal versions of what we experience in the physical world.
We have an understanding of forms since birth since we previously experienced them.
THEREFORE we have eternal souls and were in the realm of the forms before birth
Form of the good
Allows the should to understand truths in the realm of the forms
Higher forms
Concepts/ideals
Lower forms
Parts of higher forms seen in phenomena/objects
Particulars
Physical, imperfect, mortal things
What do the aspects of the cave analogy represent?
The cave = our material world
Prisoners = humans who do not use reason
Escaped prisoner = humans who question and reason
Outside of the cave = realm of the forms
Why do theists object to Aristotles concept of God?
It transcendent meaning it does not interact with the universe - it is irrelevant to the universe
Aristotle criticism : cause and effect
Perhaps cause and effect is an infinite chain, there might not be any need for anything to start this
Aristotle criticism : Russel, Sartre and Dawkins
Does the universe need a telos?
Perhaps it just exists with no reason or goal and is the result of chance
Aristotle criticism : rejecting reason
He rejects the use of reason completely, it would be bad to confine ourselves to only empirical knowledge.
Plato criticism : Dawkins
It is nonsense to talk of a transcendent other world as science has proved that the physical world is reality.
It is also an abstract idea in itself
Plato criticism : Aristotle
Platos argument is illogical when pushed to logical extremes as it is hard to accept that there is ideal forms of spite/jealousy
Plato criticism : universal?
Everyones idea regarding the perfect form of something is different - disproving that we lived in the realm of the forms
Plato criticism : “good” and “bad”
We all have different concepts of goodness.
AJ Ayer - when we talk of something being good/bad we are expressing an emotional reaction, not true knowledge
Plato criticism : elitist and unfair
Plato infers that only intellectuals are capable of goodness
Criticism of empiricism
Our senses can mislead us
Criticism of reason
Reason is limited unless it has experiences to provide it with information. Eg you do not know if its raining outside unless you look
Similarities of the Prime Mover and Form of the good
They have both influenced the Christian understanding of God.
Plato - God is perfect goodness/permanent/unchanging
Aristotle - God is the cause of everything and not caused by anything else
Differences of the Prime Mover and Form of the good
Humans might be able to experience the from of the good, but not the prime mover
Heraclitus
Cast doubt on the possibility of gaining knowledge because the world is constantly changing.
Heraclitus quote
“A man never steps in the same river twice”
Nietzsche
Called the form of the good a ‘dangerous error’ and claimed philosophers tend to invent ideas to justify their emotional prejudices, such as a desire for power
Wittingden’s rejection of the forms
Rejects the one over many argument (idea that different particulars share a common property that makes them all the same)
There are a series of overlapping characteristics - just as members of a family resemble others.
Aristotle’s third man argument (rejects Plato)
To find the similarity between a man and the form of man, one needs a third form of man, and this always requires another form. The explanation of the original similarity is never given; it is only put off to the next level.
Stephen Law’s criticism of Plato
The idea that there are forms for everything can be carried to absurdity.
“The form of the Bogey!”
