Aristotle Flashcards
What do the 4 causes tell you
Explain why things exist and why change occurs
What are the 4 causes
- Material: the things out of which an object is created
- Efficient: the way an object is created
- Formal: the expression that led to the creation of its objects, its characteristics
- Final: the aim for which an object is created, ‘telos’
Explain the analogy of the archer and link it to virtue ethics
- you have to find the golden mean between deficiency and excess
- just as the archer has something to aim towards, eudiamonia is our aim/telos in life
Define the Prime Mover
- the ultimate purpose of the universe/teleological
- it exists wholly outside space and time
- it is what actualises the potential in everything else
- Aristotle creates this concept in order to avoid infinite regress, it is a resting point for the existence of other contingent objects
What is Aristotle’s view of the body and soul
- monist (seal and wax analogy)
- They are not two separate entities but are different aspects of the same thing
- the soul cannot exist without the body => no immortal soul
Define potentiality and actuality and explain how this is relevant in the nature of causation
- Potentiality = the possibility of becoming something else
- Actuality = when potential is achieved
- these two combined is what drives the change in an object
Explain Gerry Hughes’ analogy that supports the Prime Mover
- analogy of the cat and the milk
- a bowl of milk is placed in a room and a cat crosses over to it
- the milk is passive and hasn’t acted => shows how the prime mover works
Evaluate his causation
+ more empirical => more verifiable and doesn’t depend on another world for existence
+ does seem we learn through the senses e.g: we don’t know what an axe is until we have experienced it
CP (-): Plato: we should know a priori
CP (+): until you have experienced an axe you don’t know what its 4 causes are
CP (-): ‘Meno’ slave boy example
Evaluate his view on body and soul
+ can explain how the body and soul interact as they are two aspects of the same thing, whereas dualism supposes an immaterial substance for which there is no evidence in modern science
+ ultimately does seem that we want happiness and Plato does not give a purpose for the soul
- question of which comes first, mental or physical events, the origin of our thoughts can be provided with dualism
Aristotle’s view on virtue ethics
- the Good is what helps us achieve eudaimonia and we should work on our characteristics/virtues in order to achieve a state of eudaimonia
- “goodness is more like whiteness” as you can’t define it, you only point to examples of it => goodness isn’t objective as it is more like a characteristic
- virtues are consequently socially defined (cf. cultural, individual and situational relativism)
Evaluate the Prime Mover
- has contradicted his own empiricism by claiming the prime mover is a metaphysical entity that is outside space and time
- evolution shows that there is no ultimate purpose, it is merely the survival of the fittest and it is not driving to a single end point
+ ultimate purpose can’t be empirical => he is basing it on a reasoned point
+ very similar to God => appeals to theists and atheists as they seek an ultimate explanation for the universe - link to Behe, where he uses the example of a flagellum were individually, its 40 parts have no purpose but collectively they do
CP: Prime Move is a collective purpose of the universe
Evaluate Aristotle’s virtue ethics
- Golden mean cannot be universally applied to all people in all situations e.g. It may be courageous of a soldier to fight an equally matched opponent but foolhardy to fight a far greater one
- its relativism also shows it lack to be applied universally
+ Maslow’s hierarchy of needs puts self actualisation at the top – the fulfilment of our potential is our ultimate goal
+ it is a holistic approach as it considers the whole person
