Aristotle

• What type of thinker was Aristotle?

  Empiricist
• What is key to knowledge according to Aristotle?

  The physical world around us that we understand through our senses.
• What does observation of the world reveal according to Aristotle?

  That things exist, which is self-evident and requires no further justification.
• what did aristotle observe

  - everything in the world is continually changing and 'actualising its potential'

  - eg at birth we are a baby but potentially an adult
• what does aristotle use to expalin his thoery of 'actualising its potential'

  - theory of the four causes

  - things can be 'explained' or are 'caused' on four diff levels and if you knew all four causes then you have a very thorough explaination of why everything is the way that it is
• what are the four causes

  material, formal, efficient, final
• what is the material cause

  what something is made of

  eg a table is made from wood
• what is the efficent cause

  the activity that makes something happen

  eg a cats efficent cause is its parents mating
• what is the formal cause

  what the form/shape of the thing is

  only exists in conjuction with the material cause
• what is the final cause

  The purpose of a thing

  its telos

  eg a bowl exists for holding something in it

  something is good when it acheivves its final cause/telos

  an axe is a good axe if it cuts well
• what is a huamns final cause for artstotle

  - a good person is someone who fulfils thier telos
• what did aristotle obseve about unintelligent beings

  - they seem to behave as though they have been directed towards some type of goal or end

  - eg trees grow and produce flowers and seeds

  - this points to an existence of some type of force acting upon everything else and causing this change
• what did aristotle believe was the final cause of the universe

  - must be god

  - aka prime mover

  - the prime mover is perfect and everlasting but also transcendent

  - the PM has no closeness to creation

  - the only thing worth contemplation is perfection and the only thing that is perfect is the PM so therefor it spends eternity contemplating itself
• What is a prime mover?

  - actualises potential without being effected itself as it is immutable and unchanging

  - it is 'pure actuality' - has no potential for change

  - first of all substances

  - causes change by attracting other things towards it

  - does nothing but is the object of everyhting

  - like a saucer of milk - attracts a cat but does not change in the process

  - the final cause of movement is a desire for god

  - aka unmoved mover

  - everything in the universe is drawn towards and attempts to imitate gods perfection
• what is aristotles understanding of the nature of god

  - he doesnt depend on anything for its existence

  - he must be eternal

  - he must be perfectly good

  - he is immaterial and beyond time and space

  - he is the final cause of everything
• Aristotle's key text

  Nicomachean Ethics
• • "Knowledge is the object of our inquiry, and men do not think they know a thing till they have grasped the ‘why’ of it".
  • For Aristotle, the word he used for the ‘why’ of something was caused, although explanation could also be used.
• actuality v potentiality

  • Change is simply the process by which an object acquires a new form (very different from Plato’s idea of Form). The object has the potentiality to become something different, and change is the actualisation of the potential of one form of matter to become another form of matter.
• Material Cause


  • The agent must be in a state of actuality, not potentiality. It must exist to be a cause of change in an object.
  • we can see how Aristotle got the first two of his causes – there must be matter, which undergoes the change from one form to another. In other words, if someone asks for an explanation of it, we can say what it is made of
  • "that out of which a thing comes to be and which persists"
• Efficient Cause

  • Explains how the change within the material cause happened
  • “the primary source of the change or rest”
• Final Cause

  • the aim of something, which can be seen as its greatest good.
  • “the end, that for the sake of which a thing is done”
• Emphasis on telos

  • This emphasis on the telos (the goal of something) is a key part of Aristotle’s thought.
  • For Aristotle, change is the actualisation of something’s potential with respect to its potentiality. In other words, something can only become what it has in it to be.
• Prime mover

  • Aristotle thinks of the heavenly spheres (containing the planets and fixed stars, which were considered to be nested around each other about the earth).
  • These are only undergoing changes in the sense of cyclical motion. They are not (according to Aristotle) being generated or destroyed. This is because their movement is the reality behind time itself. For Aristotle, time cannot be destructible – it is uniform and everlasting.
  • The movement of the spheres causes the change in the universe – each sphere causes the one inside it to move until you get to the outermost sphere, which has to be moved by something which is not itself moved (or it would need an explanation for its own movement).
• "The prime mover is a substance which is eternal and unmovable, impassive and unalterable"
• Understanding of reality

  • "Knowledge is the object of our inquiry, and men do not think they know a thing till they have grasped the ‘why’ of it".
  • Potentially vs actuality: draws a distinction between potentiality and actuality. applies this to the process of change (or motion). Change is simply the process by which an object acquires a new form (very different from Plato’s idea of Form). The object has the potentiality to become something different, and change is the actualisation of the potential of one form of matter to become another form of matter.
  • the block of marble has the potential to become an actual statue. The statue is latent within the block of marble – the block of marble has the capacity to become a statue