Lesson 3 - Aristotle

Question 1

What did Aristotle do with Plato?

Answer 1

Demythologizes Plato

– rejects Plato’s dualism and brought Plato’s forms down to earth

Question 2

What is the central idea in Aristotle that describes the particular things in the world?

Answer 2

Substances

Question 3

What is a substance?

Answer 3

A Form-Matter composite

Question 4

What is the difference between form and matter?

Answer 4

1. ) Form - unchanging essence (what it is)

2. ) Matter - stuff that makes it up (which it is)

Question 5

What are the 2 properties in a substance?

Answer 5

1. ) Essential properties - cannot be lost or changed without substance ceasing to exist (e.g. My humanity)
   - - Form
2. ) Accidental properties - can be lost/changed without substance ceasing to exist (e.g. My sanity)
   - - Matter

Question 6

What are the 4 causes to Aristotle (reason/explanation)

Answer 6

1. ) Material Cause - what is it made out of?
2. ) Formal Cause - What is it? What is its essence?
3. ) Efficient Cause - “By what is it made?”
4. ) Final Cause - “For what end is it made?” (What purpose is it made for?)

Question 7

What are the 2 categories of substance?

Answer 7

1. ) Primary Substance - a particular, which can’t be predicated (e.g. Aristotle)
2. ) Secondary Substance - a universal, which can be predicated (e.g. human)

Question 8

How does Aristotle define change?

Answer 8

Movement from potentiality (matter) to actuality (form)

Question 9

What is the final form with something naturally develops, fullness of potential?

Answer 9

Entelechy

Question 10

What is Aristotle’s ultimate explanation for all change (motion) in the world?

Answer 10

Prime Mover (this is his final cause)

Question 11

What is Aristotle’s anthropology?

Answer 11

holistic view (as opposed to Plato’s dualism)

• • Human beings are substances (form-matter composites)
• • The soul is the form of the material body
• • The Soul is the cause of the thing

Question 12

What is Aristotle’s epistemology?

Answer 12

Knowledge comes through reason and sense-experience

Question 13

What are the 2 parts of the mind?

Answer 13

1. ) Passive intellect - receives information based on the senses
2. ) Active intellect - abstracts the forms of the particulars that have been sensed

Question 14

What is Aristotle’s theory of truth?

Answer 14

Correspondence theory of truth: a statement is true only if what it says to be the case is in fact the case

Question 15

What is Aristotle’s theory of logic?

Answer 15

Logic: formal syllogistic inferences

– Syllogism; a conclusion drawn from two premises with a middle term

Question 16

What is Aristotle’s ethics?

Answer 16

Teleological in orientation: morality is a matter of pursuing certain ends.

• • The ultimate end is happiness or the “good life”
• • Cultivating virtues

Question 17

How are virtues obtained?

Answer 17

Developing habits or mimicking virtuous habits

Question 18

What are the 2 types of virtues to Aristotle?

Answer 18

1. ) Moral Virtues - pursuit of good character

2. ) Intellectual Virtues - pursuit of truth

Question 19

What is Aristotle’s big idea?

Answer 19

All natural objects (including humans) are form-matter composites whose essential natures determine their ends.