Aristotle: ideas about causes and purpose Flashcards
who is Aristotle?
classical Greek philosopher. studied at Plato’s academy in Athens.
what is Potentiality?
when an object contains the ingredients to be something else
what is Actuality?
when an object fulfils its potential and becomes something else
what are the four causes?
material, efficient, formal and final
what is the material cause?
what something is made out of. Explains the general sort of properties of something.
what is the efficient cause?
What has produced this object. what happened for the materials to take on a certain form.
what is the formal cause?
what makes a thing one thing rather than many things. The difference between a mere collection of cells and a human body is that a human body has properties and functions that come from a particular arrangement of the right kind of cells doing the right kind of things.
what is the final cause?
What is the objects Telos (an ultimate object or aim/purpose). if it had no purpose there is no reason for it to exist.
Aristotle believed that when an object has fully realised it’s purpose…..
it has achieved perfection. If an object is doing what it’s supposed to do in order to reach it’s purpose it has achieved goodness.
what did Aristotle believe was the purpose of humans?
to achieve eudemonia (ultimate happiness through living well)
which work of Aristotle was this in?
metaphysics
why did Aristotle assume there had to be a prime mover?
he observed that everything in life is constantly changing and in a state of motion. He reasoned that something must be causing this movement, the Prime Mover.
‘There must be a mover that moves them, without being moved, eternal and a substance and actual’
what is the prime mover?
our ultimate and final cause, what cause movement in the universe
criticism: It is hard to understand how….
the Prime Mover can be so powerful and not know it
criticism: If the Prime Mover is spiritual, where did…
the matter that made the universe come from? Was this caused too?
