Aristotle Key Points Flashcards
Background:
Born in Macedonia, studied at Plato’s Academy, learnt science, tutored Alexander the Great, founded his own school, the Lyceum, and then moved to Chalcis for a year due to being Macedonian, 380-320 BCE roughly, only a third of his books survived, mostly kept by Muslim scholars, and wrote about lots of different stuff
Aristotle’s work overall:
Whole range, empiricist, knowledge was to be gained a posteriori, still thought Plato was great
Aristotle’s understanding of reality:
Rejected the world of the forms, focused on why objects existed, both in material, structure and purpose - the form of something is to be found within itself
The four causes:
Material - what’s it made of, efficient - why it came about/who made it/by what action was it created, formal - the characteristics, final - what is it’s telos? What is it’s function? A good thing is one that fulfills it’s telos
Criticisms of Aristotle’s approach:
No evidence to consider the physical world as the only source of knowledge, senses can be fooled, not everything Needs a purpose as such, everything could just be chance, correlation doesn’t equal causation
The argument for the Prime Mover:
The physical world is constantly in flux, some stuff seems to move eternally (the planets), change/motion always has a cause, and everything is either in a state of potentiality or actuality, therefore something must exist that causes all movement but remains unmoved and eternal - the Prime Mover. Something which actualises its potential is good, since some stuff moves eternally then something must have started it, change is eternal to avoid infinite regress
Characteristics of the Prime Mover:
It’s necessary, pure actuality, it’s good because if it wasn’t it would have the potential to be good, and it can’t change so it can’t have the potential to be anything other than what it is, it is the purpose of other movement - everything is drawn to it - it doesn’t cause stuff, it is the reason for stuff happening. Everything changes to try and be better, and since the Prime Mover is perfect, it is trying to be closer to that perfection. It thinks about itself, as it can only have perfect thoughts, it knows only itself and has no knowledge of anything else
The Prime Mover and the Form of the Good:
Both are transcendent, both are impersonal, both aren’t involved with our world, Plato distinguished the realities but Aristotle did not, the fotg is the source, the pm is the end
Criticisms of the Prime Mover:
The relationship between the Prime Mover and the universe is unclear, how it can affect the universe is unclear, how can pure thought move the universe, matter is not eternal - the planets haven’t been moving eternally, if the Prime Mover is the final cause then what’s the efficient cause of the universe
