Chapter 6: The Naturalist: Aristotle Flashcards
What did Aristotle do after his teacher Plato’s death?
a. He traveled as a political adviser and educator before returning to Athens to open his own school.
b. He built a brand new school, the Lyceum, on the exact grounds as Plato’s now defunct school, the Academy.
c. He became the leader of the Academy, taking over for Plato because he was the best student in the school.
d. He gave up philosophy and dedicated his life to doing natural history.
a. He traveled as a political adviser and educator before returning to Athens to open his own school.
What makes Aristotle a naturalist?
a. He understands the good life to be one living close to nature, with natural fabrics and whole foods.
b. He seeks to understand what things are in their essence by careful observation of how they are, what they do, and how they develop.
c. He spends all his time in nature, collecting and categorizing leaves and bugs and other such specimens of living things.
d. He focuses on external states of affairs, not internal, on bodies and matter and things that exist in space and time, not abstract ideas or forms.
b. He seeks to understand what things are in their essence by careful observation of how they are, what they do, and how they develop.
How, according to Aristotle, do humans fit into the natural world?
a. The natural world is orderly and predictable, but human beings are situated above it.
b. As bodies human beings are part of the natural order, and as minds human beings are beyond it.
c. Human beings are part of the natural order and behave according to fixed laws and principles.
d. Human beings are made special as discoverers and leaders of the natural world.
c. Human beings are part of the natural order and behave according to fixed laws and principles.
Why is Aristotle sometimes called “the father of science”?
a. He focused exclusively on questions of ontology, of what exists, and answered those questions exclusively through empirical study.
b. He taught many of the next generations of thinkers who went on to found fields of science such as biology, chemistry, and physics.
c. He is the first thinker to offer an adequate account of change as a process, a process which can be studied and known.
d. He conducted experiments, testing hypotheses using empirical observations, to determine truths about reality.
c. He is the first thinker to offer an adequate account of change as a process, a process which can be studied and known.
How is Aristotle’s account of form different from Plato’s theory of the Forms?
a. Aristotle has empirical evidence for the existence of each and every form he identifies; however, Plato’s Forms are known purely through speculation about an ideal reality.
b. Plato treated the Forms as a separate realm in a dualistic metaphysics, whereas Aristotle treats form as distinct from matter only in thought and never in fact.
c. Aristotle understands form to be singular, though Plato’s view has many different kinds of forms.
d. The only difference is that we capitalize the word to mean Plato’s philosophy and leave it lowercase for Aristotle’s.
b. Plato treated the Forms as a separate realm in a dualistic metaphysics, whereas Aristotle treats form as distinct from matter only in thought and never in fact.
Why did Aristotle reject Plato’s dualism?
a. When you have a famous teacher or parent, the best way to make a name for yourself is to disagree with them.
b. Dualism means there are two realms of reality, but Aristotle thought there were many more than just two. His hierarchy establishes a more complex alternative to Plato’s two-tiered system.
c. Having two separate realms left a chasm between what is actual and what is ideal that Aristotle didn’t think could be bridged intellectually.
d. Aristotle did not reject dualism outright; he still understands there to be form and matter. He just thinks Plato had it backward about which part changes.
c. Having two separate realms left a chasm between what is actual and what is ideal that Aristotle didn’t think could be bridged intellectually.
When we watch an acorn sprout, grow, and become an oak tree, what does Aristotle think we need to understand is changing?
a. The acorn is designed to become an oak tree, so in essence nothing is changing. It only appears to our senses to be changing.
b. The acorn undergoes a process of form changes, actualizing its potential into an oak tree.
c. The material substance of the acorn slowly dies, is replaced by a sprout that dies, but is replaced by a sapling that also changes and dies, becoming finally a full grown tree fulfilling its original purpose.
d. The acorn undergoes changes to its matter, its color and shape and size, coming to increasingly accurately participate in the form of an oak tree.
b. The acorn undergoes a process of form changes, actualizing its potential into an oak tree.
Why do we need to know the goal or purpose of a thing?
a. To help a thing fulfill its purpose, we need to first know that purpose.
b. We can know what God wants when we know all the things made by God, what they are, and what they are for.
c. We cannot know a thing’s essence without knowing its function, among other things that must be known.
d. When we know a thing’s purpose, we can make the best use of it to bring about our own happiness and well-being.
c. We cannot know a thing’s essence without knowing its function, among other things that must be known.
How do matter, form, and change work together to reveal nature as purposeful?
a. Matter preexists form, and form arrives to give purpose to matter, changing the matter until it fulfills the form as intended.
b. Matter provides opportunity, and form provides direction for a thing to develop and fulfill its purpose in the order of nature.
c. Matter and form change together in cycles of communication until a thing achieves its purpose.
d. Form is always already there, and it finds its purpose by becoming substantiated in matter.
b. Matter provides opportunity, and form provides direction for a thing to develop and fulfill its purpose in the order of nature.
What is the Greek word for “meant to be” or for having its end within itself?
a. Kismet
b. Entelechy
c. Aitia
d. Soul
b. Entelechy
How did Aristotle understand the order of nature?
a. It is internally ordered, guided through entelechy.
b. Nature is disordered chaos.
c. It is divinely ordered and determined.
d. There is order in nature, but our free will can override it.
a. It is internally ordered, guided through entelechy.
What four causes must be identified for a complete understanding of anything?
a. Material, formal, active, and final
b. Material, formal, natural, and rational
c. Material, formal, natural, and divine
d. Material, formal, efficient, and final
d. Material, formal, efficient, and final
What is the entelechy of the acorn?
a. Its entelechy is to become an oak tree.
b. That depends: relative to humans the acorn is to become a table or other structure, but for, say, a squirrel, the acorn is to be nourishment.
c. It is small and smooth, a green cuplike shape with a rough, brown crown.
d. Its entelechy is to become the nut of the Quercus fagacea tree.
a. Its entelechy is to become an oak tree.
How Aristotle define psyche?
a. Mind: the seat of reason
b. Soul: the form of the body
c. Ego: one’s sense of self
d. Form: the abstract shape of a person
b. Soul: the form of the body
What are the three types of souls?
a. Id, ego, and superego
b. Nutritive, rational, and divine
c. Vegetative, sentient, and rational
d. Plants, animals, and humans
c. Vegetative, sentient, and rational
What does it mean to Aristotle that there is a hierarchy of souls?
a. Some people are meant to be in charge, and some people are meant to be followers.
b. Our place in society is predetermined: some are workers, some warriors, some guardians.
c. Everything has the same potential, though we don’t each actualize it equally. Individuals are ranked according to the actualization of their potential, highest to lowest.
d. There are different types of potential in different things. The more you can do, the higher you are on the continuum.
d. There are different types of potential in different things. The more you can do, the higher you are on the continuum.
If entelechy is natural and present in us all, why don’t all children develop the same into adulthood?
a. The internal complexity of humans combined with external circumstances means the same potential is actualized differently or incompletely in different individuals.
b. Although entelechy is exactly identical for each human being, individuals decide for themselves what elements of that entelechy they will develop.
c. Some children don’t survive until adulthood to be able to fulfill their entelechy.
d. Each individual is unique, which means they have their own entelechy and have to figure out who they are and how to self-actualize.
a. The internal complexity of humans combined with external circumstances means the same potential is actualized differently or incompletely in different individuals.
What does eudaimonia mean?
a. An exhilarated, aware, full life
b. A life of perfect goodness
c. An ascetic life of devotion
d. A simple life of happiness
a. An exhilarated, aware, full life
Why does Aristotle warn against seeking eudaimonia through the pursuit of pleasure, the acquisition of wealth, or hunt for fame?
a. Those are too difficult to achieve and too rare for everyone to acquire, so they waste precious time and effort that could be spent more practically.
b. Eudaimonia is the consequence of nourishing the soul’s full complement of qualities and needs, not shallow pursuits that inhibit self-sufficiency.
c. Any one of these is a path to eudaimonia, but seeking after all three is selfish and foolish.
d. Our ultimate rewards are found in heaven and none of these pursuits please God.
b. Eudaimonia is the consequence of nourishing the soul’s full complement of qualities and needs, not shallow pursuits that inhibit self-sufficiency.
According to Aristotle, where does genuine happiness come from?
a. Rewarded for striving after excellence
b. As a by-product of living a well-balanced life
c. Divine right
d. Primarily from luck
b. As a by-product of living a well-balanced life
Where do moral virtues come from, according to Aristotle?
a. They are standards taught in formal schooling.
b. They are habits ingrained by practice.
c. They are intuitions from the subconscious mind.
d. They are instincts there by nature.
b. They are habits ingrained by practice.
What two forms does vice take?
a. Mental and physical
b. Good and evil
c. Deficiency and excess
d. Individual and social
c. Deficiency and excess
What does it mean to have good character?
a. To have a sum total of good traits of behavior, habits, preferences, and such
b. To have charm and personality that others want to be around
c. To be a good actor able to play roles as others
d. To be born into the right family in the right socioeconomic class
a. To have a sum total of good traits of behavior, habits, preferences, and such
What does practical wisdom offer that theoretical understanding alone cannot?
a. You can deliberate and act, not simply know what is right.
b. You can get the right answer to moral, not just scientific, questions.
c. It helps you figure out which questions aren’t worth answering because they are just abstract philosophy.
d. It gives you a blueprint for making good choices, a decision tree for difficult situations.
a. You can deliberate and act, not simply know what is right.
Why do we easily mistake people, including characters in books and television, for being courageous when they are actually foolhardy?
a. We too often do not recognize what is truly virtuous and too easily endorse vices.
b. Fictional characters offer escapism from the boringness of the real world, so we do not judge them according to the Aristotelian standards of virtue.
c. It is always better to err on the side of excess of a virtue than deficiency; because foolhardiness is excess of courage it doesn’t look too vicious.
d. Although we ought to always aim at the mean, some vices—like foolhardiness—are closer to the mean than others—like cowardice—because they reflect more of the virtue courage.
d. Although we ought to always aim at the mean, some vices—like foolhardiness—are closer to the mean than others—like cowardice—because they reflect more of the virtue courage.
