Aristotle Flashcards
aristotle
- born in Greece
- plato was his teacher at plato academy
- property dualist
- empiricist
form
the purpose of things
form of the human
- vegetative
- appetitive
- reason
“worthy of the beasts”
pleasure isn’t our main function
cause
explanatory factor for something
philosophy
knowledge of causes of things
experience
knowledge of the particulars
teleos
an end of things
hylomorphism
change in a substance
matter
- material things
- persists in change
form
- teleos/purpose
- changes
substance
composed from matter and form
formal cause
model upon which something is made
efficient cause
the means by which a thing comes into existence
material cause
what something is made of
final cause
goal or teleos of a thing
4 causes of change
formal
efficient
material
final
eudaimonia
using reason and is the final cause of humans
potentiality
a power to become something
characteristics of prime mover
- is necessary
- not capable of change
- pure actuality
- pure good
- perfect
- final cause
change
everything is going from actuality, to potentiality to a new actuality
how does the universe relate to God?
- as a leader
- in the order of the universe
prime mover
he is the cause of the world but not the creator/designer, it is just in his nature to attract things and make them move (compare to the form of the good)
criticisms of the causes
- a purpose for something is subjective
- atheists argue we have no purpose and are here by chance
- our senses aren’t always accurate
advantages of the prime mover
- impassive prime mover is more logical than a perfect God
- avoids the problem of evil
disadvantages of the prime mover
- if he is pure thought, how did he cause matter as things are caused by like things
- not good enough for religious believers as they can’t worship him
- we might be here by chance
