Aristotle

Question 1

What did Aristotle believe?

Answer 1

• An empiricist (knowledge is gained through experience of this world)
  
  • He rejected Plato’s idea of the realm of the Forms and said that reality was in this world.
  • We must study this world to gain knowledge, which comes from experience
  • Believed everything has a telos, a purpose

Question 2

How does Leibniz support Aristotle?

Answer 2

sufficient reason supports Aristotle’s idea of telos - nothing exists without a reason

Question 3

What did Aristotle believe made things unique?

Answer 3

everything has Substance - the essence of something. Made up of form and matter.
▪ Form - the characteristics of an object
▪ Matter - the material which makes up an object

Question 4

What are the four causes?

Answer 4

• The four causes give a complete explanation for why something exists as it does, uniquely
  
  • Aristotle’s teaching of a final cause and telos appeals to many humans who like to think that there is an ultimate purpose to living. Supported by Natural Moral Law-Aquinas

Question 5

What is the material cause?

Answer 5

this explains what something is made from e.g. A chair is made from wood and nails, or metal, or plastic, depending on the chair

Question 6

What is the formal cause?

Answer 6

this is the form, or shape, that something has e.g. A chair has a seat and legs and a back

Question 7

What is the efficient cause?

Answer 7

the activity that makes something happen e.g. The activity of the carpenter or machine that made the chair

Question 8

What is the final cause?

Answer 8

the purpose of something, it’s telos e.g. For a chair to be sat on

Question 9

What is the prime mover?

Answer 9

• There is a prime mover which is the final cause of the universe and the efficient cause of change.
  
  • The prime mover cannot change because then it would not be the start of the chain of change. It does not depend on anything for its existence
  • The prime mover attracts change (Gerrard Hughes cat and milk analogy)
  • The prime mover can have no potential. It is pure actuality.

Question 10

Why must the prime mover be uncaused?

Answer 10

• Aristotle argued that there must be a thing that started change without being changed itself, an uncaused causer, because the chain of change cannot go on forever.

Question 11

What are the characteristics of the prime mover?

Answer 11

○ Perfect (because change implies imperfection)
○ Immaterial
○ Has no potential
○ Exists outside of time as time is a measure of change
○ Exists out of space as things in space chance as they decay

Question 12

Strengths of the prime mover (4)

Answer 12

• Aristotle’s argument for the Prime mover is based on the evidence of change in the universe which is observable to everybody.
• The four causes give a complete explanation for why something exists as it does.
• Aristotle’s teachings recognize that living things have their own purpose according to their nature. This should help humans to respect nature.
• Aristotle’s teaching of a final cause and telos appeals to many humans who like to think that there is an ultimate purpose to living.

Question 13

Weaknesses of the prime mover (6)

Answer 13

• Aristotle contradicts himself by saying that nothing can cause itself yet the Prime mover is uncaused.
• The universe could just be brute fact (Russell and Sartre). It is here by random chance and does not need a first cause.
• The prime mover does not prove the support the Judaeo Christian God as it is not personal and interactive. The Prime mover can not do anything.
• The universe may be the first cause.
• Not everything has a purpose.
• No concrete proof