Philosophy - Aristotle Flashcards
What did Aristotle think about the 4 causes, what question did they answer?
Aristotle reasoned that there were four causes that lay behind everything. These causes answer the question ‘What makes something what it is?’
What are the four causes?
Material, efficient, formal and final
What is the material cause?
What something is made from
What is the efficient cause?
What created/made it
What is the formal cause?
Something shape or structure
What is the final cause?
The purpose, what is it meant to do?
What did Aristotle notice about objects in nature?
Objects in nature seemed to be driven towards a goal to obtain a certain form proper to them, and their actions are all directed towards this goal.
What 4 things did Aristotle observe?
- The physical world was constantly in a state of motion and change (things seem to have a beginning, middle and end)
- The planets seemed to be moving eternally (the earth, sun and moon appeared to move)
- Change or motion is always caused by something (our experience shows us that movement is always caused by something)
- Objects in the physical world were in a state of actuality and potentiality (objects may begin in one form, but can grow and develop into something different/better)
What was Aristotle’s conclusion after making his observations?
The cause of all movement is a being that is:
.Unmoved/unchanged
.Above and beyond our world
.Something that we all aspire to achieve/reach
Aristotle believes that the universe is eternal – it did not have a beginning
In other words nothing pushed us to cause movement
What is Aristotle’s Prime Mover like?
Transcendent – outside of the universe and outside of time
Exists eternally, but not in a bodily form like ours
Why is Aristotle’s Prime Mover good?
For Aristotle, something which is eternal must necessarily be good, so things that change are bad
Change means impermanence, which is bad because there is always room for improvement
Permanent
Perfect
Reached its potential
Can never end
How does the Prime Mover cause movement without being moved itself?
Things are attracted to it, they have desire, like a cat to saucer of milk
This ‘telos’ of the movement causes movement in other things
It does not start off the movement
What does ‘telos’ mean?
the end or purpose of something
Strengths of Aristotle -
Prime/Unmoved mover
.Clear reason as to why movement and change happen
.Drawn towards Prime mover to reach our telos
.Aristotle realized everything was in a constant state of motion
.Aristotle used empirical evidence to find that everything has a final cause, and nothing comes from nothing so there must be an ultimate cause
Strengths of Aristotle -
4 causes and empirical evidence
.The 4 causes are supported by clear empirical evidence
.They can be observed in all things in the universe
.More effective theory of reality than Plato as the causes are more observable within our experience
Strengths of Aristotle -
Aristotle’s ‘a posteriori’ approach to evidence
.He adopts the ‘a posterior’ approach to evidence
.Opposes Plato’s ‘a priori’ approach
.Plato says to disregard senses, but why should we when they are the sole reason we have survived up until this point?
Strengths of Aristotle -
Christian community support
.His idea of a transcendent, immutable (unchanging) and perfect being was a catalyst for Christian doctrine about God
.Aristotle’s theory of the four causes and prime mover has been adopted by the Christian faith in order to help them understand the nature of God
Strengths of Aristotle -
Aristotle’s critique of Plato
.Aristotle himself noted the strength of his approach in his critique of Plato in Metaphysics Book 1
.’If a man has the theory without the experience…he will often fail’
.Aristotles a posteriori approach vs Plato’s a priori approach
.Empirical evidence vs logical reasoning
Weaknesses of Aristotle -
Plato and Descartes
.Senses are unreliable and can deceive us
.Descates recognized that beliefs based on sense experience are often wrong
.For example dreams
.They prefer an ‘a priori’ approach
Weaknesses of Aristotle -
John Paul Sartre
.Existential French philosopher
.The universe has no intrinsic purpose other than existing
.No empirical evidence for a prime mover, we experience change but this isn’t evidence than a being is causing this
Weaknesses of Aristotle -
Dawkins
.Any talk of the transcendent is meaningless
Weaknesses of Aristotle -
Logical contradiction
.If all things have 4 causes then how does the universe or prime mover not have these causes
Weaknesses of Aristotle -
Bertrand Russel and David Hume
.Empirisicits
.Open to ‘a prosteriori’ approach
.Inevitably argue that the universe is just brute fact
.’I would say that the universe is just there, and that’s all’
.Augustine argued there was a purpose or goal behind the universe as a whole, but this can not be proven
Weaknesses of Aristotle -
Modern physics
.Modern physics suggests the universe has a definite beginning
.The big bang theory, commonly associated with Stephen Hawking, suggests the universe had a definite starting point rather than existing in an eternal and continuous state
.Aristotle assumes matter is eternal and does not explain where it comes from
What do all the causes contribute to?
All causes contribute in their own way to our understanding of the essence of existence
How did Aristotle reach his conclusion of a prime mover?
This chain of cause and effect can be traced back, each movement being caused by a previous movement, Aristotle believed at the start of this chain was something that cannot be moved but yet causes movement – the prime mover
For Aristotle, which causes did the Prime mover fulfil?
For Aristotle the prime mover was not only an efficient cause but also the final cause, the reason for being, the end result to which everything is aimed
How did Aristotle believed the Prime mover existed?
Aristotle believed the prime mover existed necessarily (rather than being ‘contingent’, or dependent, on anything else)
