Ancient Philosophical Influences

Question 1

Are Platos beliefs priori or posteriori?

Answer 1

Priori - the knowledge is dependant from experience

Question 2

What is Platos unchaining realm known as?

Answer 2

The realm of the forms

Question 3

What are the Forms?

Answer 3

The forms are perfect, single versions of everything found on Earth.
Everything we see and experience in our real are just imperfect copies of the perfect form.

Question 4

Give examples of Forms

Answer 4

Cake, chairs, textbooks, iPads, beauty, anger, mercy etc.

Question 5

Plato was a dualist. What does that mean?

Answer 5

He believed that every human was made up of a rational soul and a body.

Question 6

What is the form of the good?

Answer 6

The good illuminates all other forms - so they all have the goodness of perfection from participating in the form of the good.
The form of the good is at the top of the form hierarchy.

Question 7

What is Platos analogy of the cave?

Answer 7

This is platos way of making us understand his idea of the forms.
The ordinary person struggles to see past illusions of this world (the shadows in the cave) because they are ruled by their senses - only the philosopher can think independently of his senses ( one prisoner escapes and sees the true reality).

Question 8

Explain the key features of the Cave analogy: 
The prisoners 
The cave 
The chains 
The shadows 
The fire 
The escapee 
The outside world 
The sun 
Persecution from the other prisoners

Answer 8

The prisoners - Ordinary people
The cave - Our physical world 
The chains - our 5 senses 
The shadows - imperfect objects we see
The fire - our sun
The escapee - the philosopher 
The outside world - The realm of the forms 
The sun - form of the good 
Persecution from the other - People don’t believe the philosopher.

Question 9

Give strengths of Platos theory

Answer 9

• Encourages us to question everything
• Explains the problem of evil
• Explains imperfections of the world
• Explains recognition
• Opens the mind to new possibilities

Question 10

Give weaknesses of platos theory

Answer 10

• Lack of evidence
• Form of everything? Even cancer?
• Critical of our senses
• Infinite regress
• ‘Good is absolutist’. An be seen as relative
• Aristotle argues ideas come from experience (theory = idea / experience = senses)

Question 11

What does it mean that Plato was a rationalist?

Answer 11

Plato based his actions on reason and knowledge rather than religious belief or our senses.

Question 12

What does it mean that Aristotle was a empiricist?

Answer 12

Argot le believed that knowledge comes from experience and our senses.

Question 13

What did Aristotle believe?

Answer 13

He had a more grounded opinion of ethics and believed the world is where truth can be found. Aristotle realised everything in the universe is in a constant state of change ( state of actuality and potentiality). He uses the four causes to explain this…

Question 14

What are Aristotle’s four causes?

Answer 14

Material cause- the matter from which the thing is made from

Formal cause- The kind of thing that something is (e.g. the chair is shaped like a chair)

Efficient cause- the agent that brings something about (e.g. the carpenter)

Final cause- the goal or purpose that a thing moves towards.

Question 15

Aristotle’s important of telos- explain

Answer 15

Aristotle believed and thought that something was ‘good’ when it fulfilled its telos (fulfils it’s final cause - it’s purpose). For example, and axe is a good axe if it cuts well.

Question 16

Who is Aristotle’s prime mover?

Answer 16

The prime mover is God and he is the final cause of the universe.

Question 17

What was Aristotle’s belief of the universe and the prime mover?

Answer 17

He believed that Earth was the centre of the universe and around it, forty rings, were the stars which revolved in perfect, circular orbits.
He believed the last ring of stars were caused to move by the prime mover (by attracting everything towards its perfection).

Question 18

What are the characteristics of the prime mover?

Answer 18

• God is eternal (he lacks potential so God must be eternal)
• Neither God nor the universe have an efficient cause
• God is perfect (becoming perfect would require a change)
• God is impassive (not involved in the universe - not interested)
• God is immaterial

Question 19

Aristotle - What is actuality and potential?

Answer 19

Actuality - Is what a thing is or does

Potentiality - refers to what a thing can do or become

Question 20

Aristotle holds a deistic view of God, what does that mean?

Answer 20

That God is uninvolved with the world after creation.

Question 21

Give weaknesses of Aristotle’s prime mover theory

Answer 21

• Aristotle’s claim that everything has a purpose is subjective (an RE book may have other purposes - balance a wonky table)
• Aristotle doesn’t explain efficient cause as he uses it to cover a wide range of changes (human-made, natural, chemical, physical,biological those determined by thought) as it seems to be too broad to be informative.
• The normal use of the word ‘purpose’ is to describe a mental intention. And inanimate things do not have a purpose
• Fallacy of composition, an error in reasoning. Not everything has a purpose. E.g. nipples on a male
• Existentialists have always denied the universe has a telos. It simply exits as a result of chance.

Question 22

Give strengths of The four causes

Answer 22

• Stronger than Platos theory because it’s observable in the physical world
• There are no anomalies to contradict the argument
• The four causes can be applied to things that exist as a way of explanation

Question 23

Give weaknesses of Aristotle’s four causes

Answer 23

• Relies on experience, Plato argued that experience was unreliable because it changes from person to person (a chair might look different to a different person)
• There is no evidence that the material world is the source of knowledge
• Emotions go against the theory as they have no material or formal cause