Chapter 5 - Aristotle: Reason and Nature

From Vaughn Textbook, Topics: The Life of Aristotle; Logic, Knowledge, and Truth; Physics and Metaphysics; and Happiness, Virtue, and the Good

What was early life like for Aristotle?

He was born in Stagira, Macedonia to physician Nichomachus who served the king and at 17 or 18 entered Plato’s Academy, remaining there for 20 years

What did Aristotle do in 347 B.C.?

He left Athens for the western shores of Asia Minor where he did philosophy, conducted marine biology research, and married Pythias with whom he had a daughter

What did Aristotle do in 335 B.C.?

He returned to Athens after 12 years to found the Lyceum

What happened to Aristotle in 323 B.C.?

He began an object of suspicion because of his ties to Macedonia, causing him to flee, going into exile on the Aegean island of Euboea, where he died at 62

What does Aristotle believe about knowledge?

He believes it is possible and that we can grasp objective truth about reality

How do Aristotle’s beliefs about knowledge differ from Plato’s?

Aristotle believes that knowing begins with sense experience

What part of philosophy is Aristotle credited with inventing?

Logic, which he used to clarify and systematise our acquisition of knowledge

What is the heart of Aristotle’s deductive system?

The syllogism

How did Aristotle aid the ease of representing a syllogism?

He came up with a system to use letters to stand for terms

What is scientific knowledge to Aristotle?

Not knowing that something is true, but why it is true → the explanation for a phenomenon

What is Aristotle’s view on how the primary axioms of science can be known?

The truly primary axioms can be known by immediate apprehension of the mind without intervening statements or inferences

What is the most important question, and its answer, in metaphysics according to Aristotle?

What basic existing things do all other things depend on for their existence? To this, Aristotle says the answer must be substance

What is one notion of substance that Aristotle rejects and why?

The notion that substance is a featureless prime matter, which he rejects saying that nothing cannot be a substance as well as refuting that we can have no knowledge of the fundamentals of reality

What notion of substance does Aristotle accept and why?

He accepts that a composite of form and matter constitute substance, with form being the essential element that makes matter more than just amorphous stuff → matter and form on their own are NOT substance

What does Aristotle argue about change?

That it is possible and frequent, with an underlying thing in the process that either has a change in properties or from which a new thing arises

What are the four kinds of causes identified by Aristotle?

• Material cause

• Formal cause

• Efficient cause

• Final cause

What is the nature of the final cause for the development of all living things according to Aristotle?

Teleological, development is directed towards a natural goal or objective, not in the sense of intentional action, but an internal goal towards which nature strives

What does Aristotle think is a good life?

One lived according to the light of reason and is therefore marked by true happiness → living rationally and possessing the moral and intellectual virtues

How does Aristotle conceive of a virtue?

It is the midpoint between the extremes of excess and deficit, with the extremes being the vices

What was offered to Aristotle in 343 or 342 B.C.?

Philip, the kind of Macedonia, offered him tutoring position in Pella, the capital of the Macedonian kingdom for Alexander, the king’s son, who would later be crowned

Why is Aristotle so important to modern philosophy?

He has left marks on many areas of study including the sciences, music, mathematics, theology, language, and philosophy as well as inventing formal logic, an entire field of philosophy

What is the Lyceum?

Aristotle’s school of philosophy and science named after its location, a grove just outside Athens dedicated to the god Apollo Lyceus

What is a deductive argument?

An argument intended to give logically conclusive support to its conclusion

What is a valid argument?

A deductive argument that succeeds in providing conclusive support for its conclusion

What is an invalid argument?

A deductive argument that fails to provide conclusive support for its conclusion

What is a syllogism?

A deductive argument made up of three statements: two premises and a conclusion

What is a term?

A word that names a class, or category, of things in a deductive argument

What is a necessary truth?

A truth that could not have been false

What is form?

The shape, pattern, or function of material stuff

What is the material cause?

A thing’s material composition

What is the formal cause?

A thing’s structure and properties that make it what it is

What is the efficient cause?

The main source or initiator of a change

What is the final cause?

What a thing is for or for what purpose it exists

What is teleology?

The existence of purpose or ends inherent in persons or things

What does it mean for something to be an instrumental good?

It is something good because it helps us attain something else good; something good for the sake of something else

What does it mean for something to be an intrinsic good?

It is something good in itself; something good for its own sake

What is a virtue?

A disposition to behave in line with a standard of excellence, i.e. they are excellences of character

What is a demonstrable statement?

A statement that is derived logically from legitimate starting points

What are the arguments of the change deniers in philosophy?

That change is either:

1. A transition from something to that same something (the new something was present in the original)

2. A transition from nothing to something

If (1) is the case, then no real change has occurred, and if (2) is the case, then something would come of nothing, which is absurd

How might Aristotle explain the creation of a bronze statue to support change?

The new thing (the statue) is created from the matter (bronze) that changes its form → the persisting element is the bronze, which has a change of its properties

Why does Aristotle reject a mechanistic/random view of the world?

He points to evidence of physical features of animals helping them, saying that the features of animals develop towards an end, e.g. eyes for seeing or teeth for killing

What is the ‘Unmoved Mover’?

A being that is the source of motion and change in the universe but does not itself move or change → it is living, eternal, a single substance, indestructible, and perfect, as the end everything desires it causes movement without itself moving

Why does Aristotle present the theory of an ‘Unmoved Mover’?

He begins with the premises ‘the universe is eternal’ and ‘everything that moves is moved by something’ and seeks to find what moves → if the universe has always existed there cannot be a first cause, so he presents the ‘Unmoved Mover’

How does Aristotle define happiness?

It is the end goal, which can only be achieved by fulfilling the purpose of being alive — attaining the highest good

Is Aristotle’s central doctrine goal directed or rule guided?

Goal directed, it asks us to strive to attain moral virtues, even though complete embodiment is impossible

What is Plato’s view on the soul?

It is the immaterial essence of a human being, a separate entity that is then imprisoned in a body and that lives on after the body dies

What is Aristotle’s view on the soul?

He sees it as a characteristic way the body functions, it is like a set of powers, similar to skill, and isn’t a part of a living creature → the soul is the form of the body