rush: plato + aristotle

why does aristotle argue the prime mover must exist

• because all change involves the movement from potentiality to actuality, aristotle argues that this chain of motion must ultimately terminate in a being that is pure actuality and itself unmoved

• this is the Prime Mover

‘plato’s form of the good makes more sense than aristotle’s prime mover’ plan

• plato- form of the good- it can be argued that plato’s form of the good is less convincing than aristotle’s prime mover as it is highly improbable that there is a single realm that contains all the diverse and contextual forms of goodness within the world

• aristotle

• nietzsche- ‘dangerous error’- plato has invented the form of the good to justfiy his desire for power

• plato- this poses a significant question: if the form of the good does exist independently of the natural world, how are human beings able to gain objective and verifiable knowledge

aristotle’s book

• ‘nicomachean ethics’

aristotle’s quote on goodness

• in ‘nicomachean ethics’, aristotle claims that goodness is not a ‘common item answerable to a single idea’

• goodness is subjective and depends entirely on the telos of that activity

example to support aristotle’s view of goodness

• in military strategy, ‘good’ is efficiently killing people whilst in medicine, ‘good’ is preserving and saving human lives

• these aims are very different, and so it is implausible to claim they participate in the identical form

prime mover on motion

• the prime mover functions as the ultimate final cause, drawing all their things towards their fulfillment

• acorn, oak tree

• eye, sight

• humans, flourishing

human flourishing

• eudaimonia