Philosophy Flashcards
Rationalism
reason is a source of knowledge not senses
world of forms
forms are perfect, eternal and unchanging forms of the everyday things we experience.
What we experience are imperfect versions/representations of the real form those things partake in.
world of appearance
our world. Things look like their original form. inferior
plato cave
Prisoners trapped in a cave all their life - they think shadows they see on the wall are the real world. One day a prisoner escapes (philosopher) and sees the actual real world.
We think the world we see is the real world, but it isn’t (that’s why we can’t gain knowledge from experience). Sun is the form of the good
form of the good
form of the good is like the sun in that it allows us to know the world of the forms and is responsible for all the existence of the other forms. This makes it the highest form.
Anyone who understands the form of the good becomes a morally perfect person - it makes it impossible for you to do wrong
hierarchy of the forms
Below the form of the good are the higher forms like justice and beauty.
Below those are perfect mathematical forms.
Below those are the forms of the things we see in our experience, e.g. the form of tableness.
form of the good 3criticism- aristotle
Aristotle points out that being a good person, i.e., being virtuous, is required to do good, not merely knowing what goodness is.
Aristotle adds that there cannot be one unified form of the good which captures all the diverse and contextual forms of goodness in this world.
are there ideal forms of negative qualities
the forms criticism- third man argument
third man argument- must be infinite forms of forms
nietzche criticism of the form of the good
strenght of nietzche
dangerous error. philosophers tend to invent ideas to justify their emotional predjudices such as desire for power
a morally perfect person has never been observed in history
empiricism
can gain knowledge from experience
4 causes
material - what something’s made of - e.g. the ‘wood’ of a chair
formal - a thing’s essence or defining characteristic, - e.g. the shape of a chair
efficient - what brought it into being - e.g. a carpenter
final - end goal of the thing telos - e.g. for a chair, to be sat on
F. Bacon criticism of aristotle
the concept of telos is unscientific
prime mover
motion runs out - if you roll a ball, it will stop.The stars and planets have not stopped moving.So, there must be a prime mover causing the motion that we experience in the world to continue.Thinks about itself and never changes.Causes motion by things in the world being attracted to it. It’s not the efficient cause of motion in the universe - it doesn’t push things, things are attracted to it because it is their telos.It is the final cause of the universe - the end towards which all things are attracted and thus move. Imperfect things in the world are attracted to the perfection of the prime mover.This is what explains the motion that we observe - it is the transition of things from potential to actual through four causes due to attraction to the final cause of the prime mover.
criticism of prime mover- newton
f you move something, it will continue to move unless met by an equal and opposite reaction - like the accumulation of friction for a rolling ball.If you throw a ball in space - it will just keep going, because there’s no friction. That’s why the stars and planets are still moving.
strenght of PM
his empirical method of gaining knowledge about reality from experience still seems to be correct.
