Psyco 303 - Aristotle Flashcards
Aristotle’s style
.systematic thinker.contrasted with plato’s breezy style.drew clear distinctions between categories so he could classify everything based on its NATURE
Sum up De Anima
Do it
What are the two senses in which anything can be moved?
A) indirectly, moved by something elseB) directly, moving by itself
What are the four species of movement?
.1) locomotion.2) alteration.3) diminution.4) growthLAGD
Every linguistic phrase is either…
Definitory or demonstrative
Two kinds of harmony
.1) cohesion of spacial magnitudes among objects.2) ratio of objects blended?
Scalae Naturae
Aristotle organized all living things into a hierarchy based on their abilities….1) plants capable of self nutrition.2) animals capable of self nutrition AND movement/sensation.3) humans have what animals have, AND thought
Draw scalae Naturae in your head
In Aristotle one notes
Bodies vs Attributes
.1) bodies exist.2) bodies have attributes (size, weight, color, shape)
Accidental vs Essential attributes
.1) essential: part of the thing’s NATURE.2) accidental: other characteristicsNote: although a body’s attributes can change, attributes cannot: they’re eternalE.g. Redness will never cease to existFor example, a chair can be made of wood, metal, or plastic, but this is an accident: it is accidental to its being a chair. It is still a chair regardless of the material it is made of.[2] To put this in technical terms, an accident is a property which has no necessary connection to the essence of the thing being described.Also, bachelor is an unmarried male. Brown hair is an accidental characteristic of a bachelor… I.e. not what makes a bachelor a bachelor.
What are the three ESSENTIAL (part of their nature) attributes that distinguish us from other animals?
.1) they MAKE (concern selves with BEAUTY).2) they ACT (concern the selves with right or wrong, do things for a reason).3) they KNOW (concern themselves with the truth)they MAK, aesthetics, morality, knowledge
How did Aristotle categorize man’s creations?
.1) true creations of humankind ( houses, art works).2) human-controlled products of nature (fires, garden).3) natural happenings (birth, growth)
What are Aristotle’s four causes?
Material, formal, efficient, finalCan apply these to any objectAcronym, MFEF
Material cause
What is it made of?That OUT OF WHICH an object is madeI.e. materialsHeart - muscle tissueRubber ball - rubber
Formal cause
What is it that makes the object what it is to us?E.g. Why do we call a chair a chair?Because of it’s ‘chairness.’ It has four legs, a seat, and a back..think Plato and the world of forms.what is this object’s perfect form?Rubber ball - ‘BALLNESS’ sphericity, solidity, bouncinessHeart - ‘HEARTNESS’ organization into appropriate form for pumping bloodThink essentialism, these are all imperfect forms of perfection from the world of forms
Efficient cause
Where did it come from, what are its origins?That BY WHICH something is madeE.g. Rubber ball - actions of machines or workersHeart - biological processes
Final cause
What is it for, why does it exist?That FOR THE SAKE of which something is madeE.g. Rubber ball - amusementHeart - pumping bloodIt’s purpose!
According to Aristotle’s four causes, is an artificial heart still a heart?
Both have the same formal (heartness) and final cause (pumping blood)However, they have different material and efficient causes.
According to the four causes, can a computer really play chess?
Compare a human playing chess vs a computerMaterial cause: No, doesn’t have brainsFormal cause: Yes, a computer is an object that can play chess by rulesEfficient cause: nope, diff materials!Final cause: yes, both play chess
To Aristotle, what must be present for humans to produce anything?
The four causesMFEF
Human causes vs Aristotle’s causes
Human: an eventAristotle: a substance, object, thing
What are the three kinds of intelligence that distinguish us from animals?
Creative, practical, theoretical
What did Aristotle believe about humans and their actions?
They always act with some end in view. They do things for a reason!
What did Aristotle, like Plato, think we always act towards?q
The good!Senseless to say we act for a bad end
What are Aristotle’s three types of good?
Bodily goodsExternal goodsGoods of the soul
Bodily goods
Health, vigor, bodily pleasure
External goods
The means by which we get the bodily goodsI.e. money/currency, to buy things that are good for us
Goods of the soul
Psychological goods, or virtuesE.g. Knowledge, skill (incl. social skills), self-esteem, honor)Called ARÊTE, which means self-actualization
The apparent good vs the real good
The real good are things we need whether we know it or not
What did distinguishing between the apparent good and the real good allow Aristotle to argue?
all people were striving for the same good (arête), even if they seemed to be wanting different thingsSo this allowed him to say people might just be working toward something they need (real good) without knowing it, or might erroneously be working towards something that they don’t actually need, but still striving for the good (apparent good)
What assumption do Aristotle and modern humanistic psychology share?
Everyone really wants to be happy and true happiness comes from maximally using our capacities in pursuit of excellence
How did Plato and pre-aristotelians use logic?
Haphazard waysPlato’s works used logic in a non-systematic way that was analogous to geometric proofs, with reductio ad absurdum argumentsPlato shows no evidence of having considered the formal structure of his argumentsAristotle did focus on this formal structure
Induction vs Deduction
Induction: reasoning from particulars to the universalDeduction: reasoning from the universal to the particulars
Terms vs Predicates in Aristotelian logic
The term is a part of speech representing something, but which is not true or false in its own right, such as “man” or “mortal”.A term can either be a SUBJECT (quantity, like all men, or some men) or a PREDICATE (tells something about the subject, like all men RUN).The proposition consists of two terms, in which one term (the “predicate”) is “affirmed” or “denied” of the other (the “subject”), and which is capable of truth or falsity.The syllogism is an inference in which one proposition (the “conclusion”) follows of necessity from two others (the “premises”).
Syllogism
The form of a logical argument in which we move from two premises (major and minor premise) to a conclusionE.g. All x are y (Major premise: predication)Z is an x (Minor premise: Case)Z is y (Conclusion)
Logical scope
Must always reason from a universal as a major premise
Negation
No humans seek the bad.Some living things are humans.Some living things do not seek the bad.
Aristotle and variables in logic
Don’t need to fill in our X and Y with real values in order for it to be correct.However a problem cause we can prove crazy stuff.All animals are livingAll unicorns are animalsAll unicorns are livingSyllogistically true, but ultimately wrong.
How long did Aristotle’s logic rule the world?
Two millennia!
What came after Aristotle’s term logic?
Predicate logic
Predicate logic
Introduces the idea of quantifying arguments, formalizing what it means to say X is Y or all X are Y, and allowing logic to operate across this formalizationOpened up more complex forms of syllogism, explained why Aristotelian logic was valid, systemized different forms of the premise
De Anima
“On the soul”-claims soul has physiological basis-emotions sensations and memories as conditions of the soul that exist only through the medium of the body-distinguishes between computation (reason) and storage (memory)
How did Aristotle get around Plato’s problem?
How do we recognized knowledge?Separated potential from actual ideas.the mind has potential to have an idea, but for that idea to be actualized there has to be interaction with the real world that motivates the knowledgeConsider for example a particular oak tree. This is a member of a species and it has much in common with other oak trees, past, present and future. Its universal, its oakness, is a part of it. A biologist can study oak trees and learn about oakness and more generally the intelligible order within the sensible world. Accordingly, Aristotle was more confident than Plato about coming to know the sensible world
What did Aristotle suggest about the forms?
They can be discovered through investigation of the natural world (science!)Plato said they were instead beyond human understanding
How did Aristotle define recollection?
Searching for an image in a corporeal substrate
What are the three ways Aristotle identified that things could become associated in memory?
By similarity.things that share features remind us of each otherBy contrast.things that are opposites remind us of each otherBy contiguity.things that have been experience together remind us of each other
Aristotle’s cosmology
Earth is central and stationary.Surrounded by sun, moon, and stars which move in circles around it.Argued the earth must be a sphere, based on its shadow during a lunar eclipse.The motion of the spheres has been set in place by ‘the prime mover’ and never changed.Came up with a complex system that involved 55 spheres that could explain the observed motions of stars and planets.
Aristotle’s contributions to mankind
.1)Naturalized psychology, bringing the human mind into the natural world as a biological phenomenon..2)Systemized the kinds of intelligence and the logical laws of thought..3)Introduced the idea of associationism: that objects of thought become connected by being associated in different ways.4) eternal forms are derived from embodied experience
