Aristotle's reality ♡

basically some guy saying, "you need evidence for everything... buuuuuut... not me xx"

did Aristotle know Plato?

yes! he was Plato’s student.

did Aristotle agree with Plato that the form of an item can exist separately from its matter?

no, without matter the form does not exist.

how long did Aristotle believe the universe had existed for?

he believed the universe always existed and that it always would. critique: modern science suggests that the universe had a beginning e.g. the Big Bang Theory.

what was Aristotle’s view on telos?

he taught teleology, which is the belief that there is an end or a purpose to something. this is influenced by the four causes.

what is Aristotle’s evidence based form of thinking called?

he was an empiricist. he believed in discovering knowledge by testing the physical world. this is also known as a materialist.

telos

purpose

Aristotle’s teleology of nature

teleology is the study of the purpose/telos of things. Aristotle believed that everything has a telos/purpose e.g. humans are rational beings and our final cause is to fulfil that. it is important you understand that Aristotle believes everything in the NATURAL WORLD has a telos, like human beings, acorns, grass, trees etc. this does not mean every human ACTION has a telos. Aristotle would not argue that evil acts such as murder have a telos, because they deviate from the human telos or rationality.

can you explain the primary substance? what does that mean?

it just means “the first thing”, like the first thing EVER. Aristotle believed that some substances or things are more fundamental than others. he believes in a hierarchy of existence, and some things must come earlier to give way for other things to exist e.g. colours can only exist if physical objects have colours. keeping this hierarchy in mind, Aristotle believed there must be one fundamental thing that everything else depends on. he describes this thing as a binding force in the universe, and this thing can be understood empirically. he calls this his, “prime mover”.

why didn’t Aristotle like Plato’s theory of forms?

Aristotle had a more empirical approach. this means he liked his observation + evidence first and his rationality second. whilst Plato argues that human beings have INHERENT ideas about beauty and justice, Aristotle believes we get those ideas FROM OBSERVATION.

Aristotle’s study of biology

Aristotle applied much of his philosophy to biological questions, which may seem removed from the subject altogether. examples:

• when studying living organisms, Aristotle always asks what their telos/purpose in nature could be. we can best understand these things by asking what purpose they serve.

• Aristotle came up with classifying things by species and genus. he created systems for classifying other things too, such as poetry and existence in general.

when Aristotle talks about “state”, what does he mean?

the way something is at that point in time

actuality meaning

the state that a thing is currently in e.g. I am a girl.

potentiality

what something can become through change. e.g. I am a girl. but I have the potentiality to become a woman!

what are Aristotle’s four causes?

• material cause

• formal cause

• efficient cause

• final cause

  don’t worry diva, we will explain what this means…

material cause

what an object is physically made of e.g. my body’s made of crushed little stars (Mitski reference) but also humans are made up of blood, flesh, other stuff so that’s our material cause alr.

formal cause

what gives us a structure and allows us to be identified as what we are e.g. a plan or model of a car, you know its a car bc that’s the way its been built.

efficient cause

what caused this thing to exist? for a painting, that would be the artist. for a human, that would be mother and father.

final cause

the function (telos) of this thing. Aristotle believed humans should have lots of thoughts and exercise our rationality because we are rational beings.

how did Aristotle classify good and bad?

something is good if it fulfils its purpose e.g. a green goldfish would be a bad goldfish because those things are meant to be GOLD.

how many worlds does Aristotle believe in?

one. there is nothing beyond this.

what does Aristotle believe is the ultimate cause for life?

Aristotle believed that everything is in a state of flux, the universe is constantly going from potentiality to actuality. he believed that behind every moment there must be a chain of movements that caused this to take place, and there must be something at the beginning of this chain. therefore, Aristotle concluded that there is a “prime mover”.

can you give me some characteristics of the prime mover?

• the first of all substances

• the essential source of first movement which, itself, remains unmoved

• has everlasting life

• its efficient cause is not to move things. its final cause is to move things

• it remains unaffected

• the prime mover is immaterial, and has only one activity. thought.

• the prime mover can only think about itself. if it thinks of anything else, this would cause it to change.

• the prime mover does not know or care about the universe around it.