Aristotle

Question 1

Plato’s forms and Aristotle’s rejection of them

Answer 1

Deemed as unexplanatory and too abstract

Forms do not exist independently of things—every form is the form of something

Question 2

Form and matter in Aristotle (hylomorphism)

Answer 2

Everything is composed of/can be explained as a composite of matter and form, determined by function Ex: House

No form without matter, except in the mind

Question 3

Mortality of the soul

Answer 3

Soul is the form of a living body, not separable

Question 4

Human purpose or function

Answer 4

Happiness (eudaimonia)
Having a complete life that contains virtue

Question 5

Tripartite soul

Answer 5

1) Rational: allows reason and abstract thought (only humans)

2) Sensitive/Perceptive: sensation, perception, motion (all animals)

3) Nutritive/Vegetative: reproduction, nutrition, homeostasis (all living things)

Question 6

Happiness and virtue

Answer 6

Virtues are the “golden means” between extremes

Being virtuous is a skill for life and contributes to happiness

Question 7

Contemplative and political lives

Answer 7

Contempl​ative life is the ideal: thought for its own sake without concern for utility
- Withdrawal from society
- Thinking for thinking sake
- “Life of the philosopher”
- Reason is the highest part of us -> reason is being used in its purest form

Political life -> government fosters a good life for its citizens

“Life in a community”
- Exercising virtues, having friends, making a family

Political happiness and contemplative happiness

But main goal is eudaimony

Question 8

Men, women, and “natural slaves”

Answer 8

Women can reason but are more emotional than men/weakness of will

Natural slaves -> can respond to reason but not reason themselves (perpetual children in adult bodies)