Philosophy 102 - Human Nature Midterm SG

[[Nature[[

  1. There are different kinds of natural things
  2. Natural things are in motion, or they change →move from potentiality to actuality
  3. The motion or change of natural things is directional: it is consistently towards some actuality that is the completion of the motion or change→when they get to that actuality they stop
  4. That actuality is the fulfillment of the thing’s potentiality: rest

-Natural things are not just going anywhere, but somewhere: not random, but directional

-Animals, plants, simple bodies exist by nature

-Things that exist by art (kind of knowledge, know-how): artifacts

Change or motion: the going from potentiality to actuality

Rest: The state or action of being in the actuality that is the end

End: The actuality that is the perfection and completion of a thing

]]Principle of Motion:]]

-Chair qua chair (by what it is) does not change, it does change in as much as it is an artifact: is made of natural things

-Natural things qua natural things do have a principle/impulse of change and coming to rest

-Even inanimate things that exist by nature have innate motion: stone drops: rock has to have nature and mass to drop, comes to rest when it comes to the earth

{{Nature: A principle or cause of being moved and of being at rest in that to which it belongs primarily, in virtue of itself, and not accidentally{{

-Nature is that thing which all natural things have in common

-Nature is the principle that makes it be the way it is and act the way it does

Substance: The ultimate subject of predication and the ultimate subject of existence

Accident: What exists in another as in a subject

Substantial change: A change wherein a new substance comes to be, with a new substantial form

Accidental change: A change wherein the same substance exists, but with some new accidental form

Substantial form: A form that makes a thing be fundamentally what it is

Accidental form: A form that makes a thing be in a certain qualified way

<<What is the immediate constituent with which the nature of a thing is primarily identified?<<

Antiphon’s Argument:

-What a thing reproduces shows its nature→you know what a thing is by what it reproduces

-If one planted a bed, wood (the matter) would come up, not another bed (the form)

-THEREFORE, a bed is most of all wood: identify the nature of a thing primarily with its matter

Aristotle’s Argument:
  1. Like generates like, i.e. generation is completed when something the same in kind to the original now exists
  2. Generation is only said to be completed when a form like the original now exists: i.e. even if the matter is the same, we don’t say the generation is done until there is the same form as the original

THEREFORE, form must be most of all what a thing is:

form is absolutely essential to determining what a thing is

{{The Four Causes:{{

-Matter/material cause →that out of which, matter is always a principle of potentiality: bronze →intrinsic

-Form/formal cause→what defines the essence, principle of actuality: shape →intrinsic

-Agent/efficient cause →primary source of change: sculptor →extrinsic

-End/final cause →that for the sake of which: decoration →extrinsic

]]Two things that distinguish non-living and living:]]

  1. Self-motion
  2. Unity and organization of parts

}}Soul:}}

-Essence →form → soul: that which makes a thing be what it is

-Death is a substantial change in substantial form→changed what it fundamentally is

-The soul and body are inseparable: tree dies, the body and soul are separated and it is no longer a tree: soul ceases to exist, body also ceases to exist as a body

[[Soul: 1) the form of a natural body having life potentially within it[[

-form important: most of all what a thing is

-life→the actions of life

-only can have actions of life if you have a soul, actions of life can never be first actualities: life operations are second actualities: presuppose prior actualities of soul

[[2) actuality of the first kind of a natural organized body[[

-All natural things have form, only living things have form = soul

-the soul is not a body→an act (actuality) of the body/form of the body

-Two principles, one substance: soul and body, not parts

{{Actuality: {{

  • First actuality: A fundamental actuality that is the basis for all further actualities, e.g. habitual knowledge
  • Second actuality: An actuality that presupposes an underlying actuality, namely the first actuality, e.g. exercise of knowledge

<<Power of soul: principle within a body of operating in a certain way<<

}}3 Vegetative Powers:}}

  1. Nutritive power: power of soul whereby the body is preserved in being and quantity
  2. Augmentative power: power of soul whereby the body acquires its due quantity
  3. Generative power: power of soul whereby a new body comes into being

   -The nutritive and augmentative serve the generative

[[Apprehension and Appetite: Two of the most fundamental aspects of reality[[

Apprehension: To possess the form of a thing by having a likeness of it

-A very special way of having the object

-Apprehension should not be identified with what follows upon apprehension

-When you apprehend, you are taking something in→you have a likeness of the form, but not according to its natural mode of being: spiritual immutation

Appetite: An inclination toward or desire for things

Natural immutation: A change in which the form of the thing causing the change is received according to its natural mode of being

-E.g. when a rock or dog gets warm, the warmth of the sun is received into the rock or dog, precisely as natural warmth

Spiritual immutation: A change in which the form of the thing causing the change is received according to a kind of spiritual mode, i.e. as an image or likeness

-e.g. the warmth of the sun is received into the dog according to a kind of spiritual mode: beyond just becoming physically warm, the dog receives a likeness or image of warmth

-Spiritual immutation is always required for sensation (essential), natural immutation is accidental

Sense apprehension: The act of the living organ of an animal that has received a spiritual immutation and thereby possesses a likeness of the sensible object

Sense appetite: The power of inclining towards what is apprehended by the sense

-Natural immutation is essential to sense appetite

Natural appetite: An appetite or inclination that follows upon the natural form of a thing (e.g. a rock falling)

Proper appetite: Inclination following upon apprehension in the thing itself

{{The interior and exterior sense powers: powers of apprehension{{

Imaginative power: The interior sense power of retaining and recalling sense images received from the exterior senses

Estimative power: The interior sense power of apprehending sense objects as advantageous or harmful for the individual or species, when the exterior senses do not perceive them as pleasing or displeasing

Memorative power: The interior sense power of retaining ‘estimations’, i.e. what the estimative power apprehends, and of retaining an aspect of ‘pastness’ that can be associated with images

Common sense: The interior sense power of uniting the sensations of all the exterior senses and of apprehending that one is sensing

-Operation of the apprehensive power is completed in the very fact that the thing apprehended is in the one that apprehends→possesses a likeness

-Operation of appetite power completed in fact that he who desires is borne towards the desirable thing

-Apprehension is followed by appetite

}}Sensitive powers: -Apprehensive: exterior senses (5), interior senses (4) -Appetitive: sense appetite →many different kinds of passions}}

-Where there is apprehension→power of appetite

<<Passions<<

Passion: movement of the appetite

{{Passion: a movement in the sense appetite, composed of a disposition in the sense appetite itself, the ‘formal’ part of the passion, and a natural immutation in an organ, the ‘material’ part of the passion{{

-passions always presuppose sense apprehension, either by internal or external senses

-natural immutation essential to passions

-passions are when drawn towards something

-appetite rouse power of being drawn towards something→apprehension mere power of taking something in

-this passion is the appetitive part

-passions are composite: form and matter

-when you have a passion: something changes in your body→heat changes, color of your face changes

]]Fear: an inclination away from future evil, with some internal bodily movement]]

[[Desire: an inclination towards possessing something pleasant, with some internal bodily movement[[