Aristotle Flashcards
What is the aim of good?
The good life, eudaimonia, happiness
What are the 3 prominent types of life and what is their aim?
- life of enjoyment: pleasure is aim
- political life: identify happiness with honour —> superficial as dependent on him who bestows honour rather than he who receives it
- contemplative life: knowledge is aim
- life of money making: wealth as an end not good, yet this seems like a means to get towards something else
How does Aristotle view moral virtue?
- circumstance varies so there are no absolute rules to follow
- right conduct is the mean between extremes of deficiency and excess
- virtue is a disposition not a feeling, faculty or activity
- necessary for happiness, but does not guarantee it
Why for Aristotle is virtue not a feeling, faculty or activity?
- feelings are not subject to praise or blame as virtue and vice are
- feelings move us to act a certain way, whereas virtues dispose us to act in a certain way
- we feel anger and fear without choice, whereas virtues are modes of choice and involve it
- faculties determine capacity for feeling, and virtue is equally not this
What are the practical rules for achieving a virtuous life?
- avoid the extreme farthest from the mean
- notice which errors we are susceptible to and avoid them
- be wary of pleasure as it can impede judgement
What are the differences between virtuous people and those who accidentally behave well?
- virtuous people know if they are behaving in the right way
- virtuous people choose to behave in the right way for the sake of being virtuous
- their behaviour is part of a fixed, virtuous disposition
How does Aristotle suggest we should judge moral actions?
He says it is dependent on whether they are voluntary, involuntary or no voluntary
What are borderline cases to involuntary actions and what are Aristotle’s responses to them?
- when someone performs under threat it is potentially involuntary depending on level of threat
- drunkenness - not to blame for actions done whilst drunk, but it is voluntary to get drunk so responsible
- actions performed in ignorance are involuntary if the person does not recognise ignorance —> ignorance is not the sole cause of bad actions, just an enabling factor —> ignorance of particulars/ facts is excusable, but ignorance of universals is inexcusable
What does Aristotle suggest the best measure of moral goodness is?
Choice, as it is always made voluntarily
What is deliberation?
- it precedes choice
- we deliberate about things that are in our power
- we deliberate about means not ends
What does choice show?
- those of good character will always aim for good
- choices show intentions, which aren’t always translated well
- choices should be judged rather than actions themselves
What are the 3 states of bad character?
Vice, incontinence, and brutishness
What is licentiousness?
Choosing excess or deficiency
What are the different types of incontinence?
- a person may know what is wrong but does not reflect upon this knowledge, so does wrong without thinking about it
- a person may make a false inference due to ignorance of facts
- a person may be emotionally excited of disturbed so unable to think clearly (impetuosity)
- desire may cause a person to act irrationally and without restraint
How is incontinence qualified or unqualified?
- a person who has excessive desire for pleasures of victory, honor, or wealth is incontinent with qualification - not real incontinence
- a person with excessive desire for bodily pleasure is incontinent without qualification
What is brutishness?
An extreme form of irrational wrongdoing, where the person lacks capacity for reason altogether
What is the difference between incontinence and licentiousness?
- licentious person acts out of choice
- incontinent person lacks such self control
Why is it more forgivable to be incontinent from temper than desire?
One with a short temper is reasonable to a point, whereas the person who gives into desire is entirely unreasonable
Why is incontinence better than being licentious?
Licentious person has made a bad choice willingly rather than being incapable of understanding virtue
Why is a licentious person more easily reformed than an incontinent one?
They act from choice so can be reasoned with
What is continence?
Involves conquering desires
Why is continence preferable to endurance?
It involves conquering desires rather than just enduring them
What is the opposite of endurance?
Softness of effeminacy: where one is unable to bear the sorts of pains most people can
What is Aristotle’s view on pleasure?
Pleasure is an end and only harmful in a limited sense. Higher pleasures, such as contemplation, are beneficial as they lead to a good life.
What are criticisms of Aristotle’s ethics?
- Aristotle assumes human nature to be rationality
- only concerns the self, not the effect on others
—> CA: Greek idea of ethics different to modern - it is arbitrary as the particular virtues he mentions are a product of his environment
—> CA: irrelevant as it is about acting in a certain way according to one’s own circumstances - difficult to know exactly what is virtuous- mean can fluctuate according to each person
- circular, as Aristotle suggests looking at the virtuous man to know how to be virtuous
- vicious circle: 1. Your character determines your apparent good 2. You act in your apparent good 3. Your actions define your character
What is justice for Aristotle?
- lawfulness and fairness
- laws encourage people to behave virtuously, so the just person, who is by definition lawful, will necessarily be virtuous
- justice deals with one’s relations with others
- particular justice deals with the divisible goods of honor, money, and safety, where one persons gain results in someone else’s loss
What are the two forms of particular justice?
- Distributive justice: deals with the distribution of wealth in a community in relation to a persons merit
- rectifacatory justice: remedies unequal distribution between two people in court by restoring a mean
Why is metaphysics a ‘first philosophy’?
- it influences all other parts of philosophy
- it is for the sake of itself
What is the threefold account of metaphysics?
- science of being qua being
- science of the highest being
- science of the first principles and causes
How is metaphysics a science of being qua being?
- it is looking at the most basic ground of everything
- it is not cutting up certain parts from others
Why is metaphysics a science of the highest being?
- it is a divine science
- studies things that keep the world going
- studies the properties of a divine being
What branches of knowledge does metaphysics divide into?
- practical
- productive
- theoretical
What is the theoretical branch of knowledge divides into?
- physics
- mathematics
- theology
What is physics according to Aristotle’s metaphysics?
Science of objects existing separately but undergoing change
What is mathematics according to Metaphysics?
Study of objects in so far as they do not undergo change but are not separable
What is theology according to Metaphysics?
Study of objects not undergoing change and existing separately. It is prior to both physics and mathematics. Objects are eternal, so prior to changeable and temporal, and existing independently.
How is metaphysics a science of first principles and causes?
- examines first causes in first book
- principles are those which it is impossible to be mistaken
- most important is principle of non-contradiction
What is the nature of knowledge for Aristotle?
- experience is advantageous for the individual case, but science is superior as it knows the causes
- person who has knowledge ties it down w reason
- theoretical knowledge is superior to practical
- wisdom is knowledge of principles and causes
- knowledge is the science of a free person
- it is not initiated by practical purpose but the desire to know and remove self from ignorance
How do we know which principles and causes are important?
We look at the wise person
What are the characteristics of the wise person?
- knows all things without learning each of them in detail
- knows what is difficult to learn
- is more exact
- can teach the causes
- knows the universally order under which everything falls ( hardest to know, furthest from senses, dealing with first principles, most desirable)
What is the role of the soul in life?
- soul is origin of motion ( itself in motion and passes this onto body)
- Soul is in the same space as the body
- soul is essential to life
- soul is the form of the body and body is the material that is informed by the soul
- soul is the first grade of actuality of a natural body which has life potentially
- soul is the first grade of actually of a natural body which is organised
How does the body work in relation to the soul?
- soul is the form of the body
- body is matter that needs to be actualised by the soul
- soul is the first grade of actuality of a natural body which has life potentially
- soul is the cause for body: essence of the ensouled body so a formal cause, it is that from which movement is derived so an efficient cause, and is that for the sake of which natural bodies are, so a final cause
What are the three types of soul?
- nutritive faculty: nutrition, growth, reproduction - possessed by all living beings
- faculty of sense perception: perceiving the external world - touch is most basic - possessed by all animals
- faculty of reason and thought: possessed by humans
What is the activity of perceiving?
- an alteration of the sense organs
- we receive the form, but not the matter of the perceived object
- the sense organ is informed about the sense object and to some degree becomes like the object it perceives
What are the properties of perceived objects?
- they can be special to a single sense
- they can be common to different senses
- we perceive them incidentally
What are properties of the faculty of perception?
- needs external objects
- passive faculty
- sense organs don’t perceive themselves
What are differences between perception and thinking?
Perception:
- the faculty of perception is ready to be used at birth, but needs an external object to actualise its potentiality
- it is a passive faculty: do not perceive themselves but perceived individuals
- the faculty can be destroyed by excess
Thinking:
- thinking needs development but is an active faculty that is independent of external objects
- thinking can be self-reflective, and it is related to universals
