Aristotle Flashcards
What did Aristotle believe in to explain the universe ?
Change - the movement between potentiality and actualization
What were Aristotle’s 4 causes?
- Material cause = What the object is made from
- Efficient cause = How the object got its particular form- what made it like that
- Formal cause = the characteristics of the object- what makes it like it is
- Final cause (Telos) - what is its purpose
What were the key features of Aristotle’s beliefs
1) Did not accept that there was a world more real then this one
2) Empiricist
3) Journey of knowledge was acquired through observation of the world
What was the phrase Aristotle used to lead to a closer understanding of things?
” per genus et per differencia” = by type and by difference
-reflective categorization
What was Aristotle’s greatest discovery? How would this contrast to Plato’s thinking?
His greatest discovery was that the world was a sphere = contrast to Plato who would of been thinking about what the sun truly was and what the perfect from may be
What did Aristotle get wrong?
‘Spontaneous generation’ = all life sprung from inanimate matter
= dissaproved by Louis Pasteur 20th cent
What is the unmoved mover?
- Some things in the universe are not moving at all
- the prime mover doesn’t move but everything moves towards it to find there telos
- God is indifferent to the world as he interacted or thought about it he would cease to be perfect
How is Socrates’ unmoved mover different from Aquinas’ prime mover?
Prime mover = set everything into motion
Unmoved Mover = all motion attracted to it
What are some criticisms of Aristotle
1) error to assume the universe has any cause/ purpose = Democritius + Fallacy of composition
2) Doesn’t need to be an explanation for the cause of the universe
3) Unmoved mover is not a very passionate God= not interested in the world
What did Dawkins say?
There is no sense to talk of the purpose of the universe as it just exists without any reason and its existence is purely down to chance
