C3: Aristotle & Causation (PofR)

Question 1

Material cause

Answer 1

The substance of which the thing is made

Question 2

Formal cause

Answer 2

The cause or purpose

Question 3

Efficient cause

Answer 3

It’s maker or builder

Question 4

Formal cause

Answer 4

It’s purpose or function

Question 5

Empiricist

Answer 5

One who believes all knowledge is ultimately based on sense experience

Question 6

‘Per genus

Answer 6

Et per differentia’

Through type and difference - Aristotles method of defining things

Question 7

‘That out of which

Answer 7

A thing comes to exist and which continues, is called ‘cause’’

Question 8

Teleology

Answer 8

Any theory in which everything is related to its goal or purpose eg the four causes

Question 9

Purposiveness

Answer 9

Assumes that something has a goal or reason for being eg the final cause

Question 10

The prime mover

Answer 10

Aristotles god, indifferent to the universe instead contemplating his own perfection
Creates motion by drawing all things to himself as the ultimate final cause

Question 11

Objections to Aristotles theories

Answer 11

Scientific objections: modern science casts doubt on many eras of the four causes

Philosophical objections: the fallacy of composition is an error in reasoning

Question 12

the fallacy of composition

Answer 12

The error in thinking that what is true of the part is true of the whole eg all humans have mothers however it does not follow that all humankind has a mother