Ancient Philosophical Influences: Aristotle Flashcards
Quotation from Physics
“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.
Potentially vs actuality
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.
Marble/statue example
For example, the block of marble has the potentiality 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.
Potency and act are distinct
It is important to note that potency and act are distinct. The marble cannot be Botha block and the statue at the same time. In another example a piece of wood cannot both be potentially on fire and actually on fire at the same time - so change is this movement between potential and actual.
Material Cause
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 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.
Explaining the ‘how’
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 cause in the marble an actual statue.
Beyond material/efficient causes
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.
Formal Cause
If we were to ask a person ‘what makes you the person you are?’ They would probably not list off the elements that compose them, such as carbon. That 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 - e.g. a chair is more than just some wood, it is and object with four legs and a space to sit. Aristotle called this the formal cause.
Formal cause - statue example
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.
Explanation of the final cause
The idea of a purposive cause is given by Aristotle because somethings aim or goal is also 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, that aim of something can be seen as its greatest good. This is brought out in our use of language when we ask for an object ‘what is it good for?’.
Emphasis on the telos
This emphasis on the telos ( the goal of something) is a key part of aristotles 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.
Achieving the telos
The potential of something may be latent until something else acts upon it.
But if that thing acts upon it in a direct manner and brings about its potential, then we can say the telos of something has been achieved.
Modern science - efficient cause
Modern science focuses on the efficient cause when explaining the physical world. In fact, the final cause is not considered.
Using teleological reasons
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.
Some things are not changing
Remember the movement form 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.
