Aristotle (Quiz 2)

Primary substances

Can only take subject- position ex: Socrates Object, Particulars

Induction

leads from many individual perceptions to universal concepts..

In Aristotle's account of the four causes,

the material cause is the one that explains the individuality of things..

metaphysics

the perfect, science of being, substance, form, essence, pure actualities, unmoved mover/ god, laws of non- contradiction, excluded middle

Nature does nothing in vain

Organon

Aristotle defines happiness (eudaemonia) as

activity of the soul in accord with reason..

Aristotle explains change in terms of

actuality and potentiality

Formal cause

The characteristics that make some thing the kind of thing it is.

A statement, according to Aristotle, is

either true or false

The success of a syllogism is due in part to its

form

Case of figures in De Anima

"Clearly, then, the soul will have one single account in the same way that figure has; for just as figure is nothing besides the triangle and the figures that follow in order, so equally the soul is nothing besides those [potentialities] we have mentioned. Still, in the case of figures we can find a common account that fits all of them and is distinctive of none; the same is true for the souls we have mentioned. It is ridiculous, then, in these and other such cases, to seek a common account that is not distinctive of any being and does not fit the proper and indivisible species, if we neglect this [distinctive] account. Hence we must ask what the soul of each particular [kind of thing] -for instance, a plant, a human being, or a beast -is." (De Anima, Bk 3, 414b 20-31)

immediate premises

arche

pure actualities

A pure form, the substance of substance, the being of being, would be a pure actuality, fully realized without potentiality at all, without accidental qualities.

Validity

A term for logical goodness in deductive arguments; an argument is valid whenever, if the premises are true, it is not possible for the conclusion to be false. An argument can be valid, however, even if the premises are false.

Problem of mental causation

Aristotle asks how the soul moves the body if it is immaterial and the body material

Types of S-P Statements: Universal Negative

No humans are mortal. No S is P.

3 Apprehensions:

Noesis, Deduction, and Science/ Induction

What is it that grows?

Not what it is growing from, but what it is growing into

How can the unmoved mover move things without being moved?

Now, the object of desire and the object of thought move things in this way: they move things without being moved. (M 12.7) The final cause then moves things because it is loved, whereas all other things move because they are themselves moved. . . . But since there is something that moves things, while being itself immovable and existing in actuality, it is not possible in any way for that thing to be in any state other than that in which it is. . . . The first mover, then, must exist; and insofar as it exists of necessity, its existence must be good; and thus it must be a first principle. . . . It is upon a principle of this kind, then, that the heavens and nature depend. (M 12.7)

Logic and knowledge

That logic supplies a non-psychological criterion for goodness in argument (Compare to the Sophists) Statements are sentences that can be true or false; the functions of subject and predicate Terms make up statements Kinds of terms—the categories; the fundamental character of terms for primary substances Truth as correspondence The formal character of logic The square of opposition and the syllogism Induction as the means to know universal first principles and stop an infinite regress

The Soul

That the three levels of soul build on each other That soul is fundamentally non-substantial, but is the form of a living body of a certain sort Why Aristotle cannot find a material substratum for the activities of nous, and concludes that it must have an independent and immortal existence

Secondary Substances

Can take both subject and predicate position ex: human Properties, Universals

Truth

For Aristotle, a property of statements: saying of what is that it is and of what is not that it is not.

First Philosophy

Four reasons why Aristotle does not accept Plato's account of the Forms How mathematics is possible without Plato's Forms: Abstraction Why form is prior even to substance What kind of form an essence is The possibility of pure forms, pure actualities God as final cause of the world; the unmoved mover

Substance

What is fundamental and can exist independently; that which has or underlies its qualities. For Aristotle, the individual things of our experience.

Knowledge and First principles (problem)

What is scientifically known must be demonstrated... Therefore, nothing can be demonstrated.

Final cause

What something is for, its purpose or goal.

Subject- Predicate Statements 'x is f'

declarative statements: 'x is f' x= subject term is F= predicate term ex: Socrates is human. Humans are mortal.

God, Aristotle says,

functions as the final cause for the world..

Square of Opposition: U.A. and U.N.

Contraries (cannot both be true but may both be false) All S is P and No S is P are contraries.

Anomalous Monism

Only on kind of thing, but different and irreducible explanations.

Rejection of Plato's Forms

A criticizes Plato's theory of the Forms: 1.The Third Man Argument. 2.Particular things participate in the forms and, thereby, derive their reality. A calls "participation" an "empty phrase" and a "poetic metaphor" (M 1.9) 3.To say that the Form Humanity explains humans is simply to multiply the entities that need explanation. It is certainly no easier to explain the existence and nature of humans-plus-the-Form-human. (M 1.9) 4.How can a Form be both individual (a substance in A's sense) and universal? How can one triangle stand for all triangles? One human for all humans? One beauty for all beauty? (M 7.16) 5.How can the Forms, eternally unchanging, account for changes? One is most of all bewildered to know what contribution the Forms make to the sensible things that come into being and perish; for the Forms are not the cause of their movement or any change in them. (M1.9)

Universal

All

Types of S-P Statements: Universal Affirmative

All humans are mortal. All S is P.

Soundness

An argument is sound just in case 1) it is valid, and 2) all of the premises are true

validity

An argument is valid when its logical form is such that if the premises are true, the conclusion must be true.

Luck and Chance: Events occur?

By uniform necessity/ Matter As a general rule/ Form By luck or by chance

ESSENCE

DEFINITION; UNIVERSAL

Deduction

Episteme

Determinism, Luck and Chance

Physics

Particular

Some

What is the psyche?

soul

physics: conclusion- therefore, the products of nature are for something.

1. Craft imitates nature. 2. The products of a craft are for something. 3. Therefore, the products of nature are for something.

Three interpretations of Aristotle's Philosophy of Mind

1. Functionalism: The mind is the function of the body. 2. Emergent Epiphenomenalism: The mind emerges from the body 3. Anomalous Monism: Only one kind of thing, but different and irreducible explanations.

Physics: Conclusion- Therefore, natural things are for something (they have a purpose).

1. If something is not the result of luck or chance, then it is for something (it has a purpose). 2. Natural things are not the result of luck or chance. 3. Therefore, natural things are for something (they have a purpose).

physics: conclusion- Therefore, nature is for something.

1. What is true of action is also true of nature. 2. Actions are for something. 3. Therefore, nature is for something.

Square of Opposition: U.A. and P.N.

Contradictiories All S is P and Some S is not-P are contradictory.

Square of Opposition: U.N. and P.A.

Contradictories No S is P and Some S is P are contradictory.

Passive and Active Intellect

"So then there must be one sort of mind that is such as we have described by virtue of becoming everything, and there is another sort of mind that is such by virtue of making everything; it is a sort of condition like light. For in a way light makes what are potentially colors become colors in actuality. This second mind is separable, incapable of being acted upon, mixed with nothing (pure form), and in essence an actuality."430 a 13 Aristotle calls the former passive mind and the latter active mind.

Unmoved mover or god and connection to physics

"Things that initiate motion without being in motion are outside the scope of the study of nature. For although they initiate motion, they do not do so by having motion or a principle of motion within themselves, but they are unmoved. Hence there are three inquiries: one about what is unmoved, one about what is in motion but imperishable, and one about what is perishable." (P, 198a30)

unmoved mover or god

"Things that initiate motion without being in motion are outside the scope of the study of nature. For although they initiate motion, they do not do so by having motion or a principle of motion within themselves, but they are unmoved. Hence there are three inquiries: one about what is unmoved, one about what is in motion but imperishable, and one about what is perishable." (P, 198a30)

How does Aristotle define soul (psyche)?

"the first actuality of a natural body that potentially has life"

Is the active mind immortal?

'It (active mind) is immortal and eternal; we do not remember this because, although this mind is incapable of being acted upon, the other kind of mind, which is capable of being acted upon, is perishable. But without this kind of mind nothing thinks.' (De Anima, Book 5)

Aristotle's Problem

'There will be a sea battle tomorrow' Problem: If we assume that this is true now, then the future is determined now. If we assume that this is false now, then the future is determined now. Principle of Bivalence implies determinism about the future.

physics: Conclusion= No S is P.

(1) All S is M. (2) No P is M. (3) Therefore, no S is P.

physics: conclusion= Therefore, no natural things are the result of luck or chance.

(1) All natural thins come to be as they do either always or usually. (2) No result of luck or chance comes to be either always or usually. (3). Therefore, no natural things are the result of luck or chance.

Solution to Aristotle's Problem

(1) Embrace determinism.(2)Reject the Principle of Bivalence for future contingents. (3)"It is necessary for everything either to be or not to be,and indeed to going to be or not going to be. But one cannot divide [the contradictories] and say that one or the other is necessary. I mean that, for instance, it is necessary for there to be or not to be a sea battle tomorrow, but it is not necessary for a sea battle to happen tomorrow, nor is it [necessary] for one not to happen. It is necessary, however, for it either to happen or not to happen."(DI, 19a25-35)

3 Episteme

(1) Practical (ethics, politics, economics)- habit, craft, skill (2) Productive (rhetoric, writing), poetry (3) Theoretical (physics, math, metaphysics) biology- science, knowledge, purity not practical

To understand a thing is to:

(1) understand what it is made of (b) what kind of thing that is (c) what makes it (d) what its purpose is

Three sorts of substance?

(1)Matter (potentiality) (2)Form (actuality) (3) Compounds of matter and form

Four causes/ "becauses" of things (to understand something is to understand its 4 becauses)

1. material cause 2. formal cause 3. efficient cause (just the cause) 4. final cause/ telos (purpose of a thing)

Are there Final Causes in Nature? Does Nature have a purpose?

1st argument: no natural things are the result of luck or chance. and natural things are for something (they have a purpose). 2nd argument: nature is for something. the products of nature are for something.

How does the soul become incarnate in the body? Why does Aristotle ask this question?

B/c the soul can't become incarnate of the body if they are two distinct types of substance.

Principle of Bivalence

Every statement is either true or false.

Law of Excluded Middle

Everything is either F or not-F.

Law of Non- contradiction

Evidently then it belongs to the philosopher, i.e. to him who is studying the nature of all substance, to inquire also into the principles of syllogism. But he who knows best about each genus must be able to state the most certain principles of his subject, so that he whose subject is existing things qua existing must be able to state the most certain principles of all things. This is the philosopher, and the most certain principle of all is that regarding which it is impossible to be mistaken; for such a principle must be both the best known (for all men may be mistaken about things which they do not know), and non-hypothetical. For a principle which every one must have who understands anything that is, is not a hypothesis;and that which every one must know who knows anything, he must already have when he comes to a special study. Evidently then such a principle is the most certain of all; which principle this is, let us proceed to say. It is, that the same attribute cannot at the same time belong and not belong to the same subject and in the same respect; we must presuppose,to guard against dialectical objections, any further qualifications which might be added. This, then, is the most certain of all principles, since it answers to the definition given above. For it is impossible for anyone to believe the same thing to be and not to be, as some think Heraclitus says. For what a man says, he does not necessarily believe; and if it is impossible that contrary attributes should belong at the same time to the same subject (the usual qualifications must be presupposed in this premiss too), and if an opinion which contradicts another is contrary to it, obviously it is impossible for the same man at the same time to believe the same thing to be and not to be; for if a man were mistaken on this point he would have contrary opinions at the same time. It is for this reason that all who are carrying out a demonstration reduce it to this as an ultimate belief; for this is naturally the starting-point even for all the other axioms. (M, 1005b10-30)

Induction

Experience, Science, Memory, Perception, Demonstration

Nous

Greek term usually translated as "mind." In Aristotle, nous is the active and purely formal principle that engages in thinking and contemplation; he argues that nous is more than just the form of a living body; it is a reality in its own right and is eternal.

Suppose the eye were a living creature. Explain this example.

If an eye were a living creature: sight would have been its soul, for sight is the substance of the eye that corresponds to the definition [of what it is to be an eye]... And once sight is removed the eye is no longer an eye except in name: it is no more a real eye than a stone eye or an eye in a drawing.

Metaphysics: First Philosophy

If there is no other substance apart from those that have come together by nature, natural science will be the first science. But if there is a substance that is immovable, the science that studies it is prior to natural science and is the first philosophy. . . . It is the business of this science to study being qua being, and to find out what it is and what are its attributes qua being. (M 6.1)

Noesis

Intuition

Essence

Isolate the forms that makes the thing what it is. Its essential properties. These are expressed by definitions. E.g. x is a human if x is a rational animal These are the objects of knowledge.

Aristotle's main comment about the soul and body

It seems as though the soul requires a body.

The unmoved mover is the final cause; it is loved by all things.

Its life is like the best that we can enjoy—and we can enjoy it for only a short time. It is always in this state (which we cannot be), since its actuality is also happiness. (And that is why waking, sensation, and thought are the most pleasant of things, whereas hopes and memories are pleasant because of them) . . . If, then, God is always in the good state that we are sometimes in, that is something to wonder at; and if itis in a better state than we are ever in, that is to be wondered at even more. This is in fact the case, however. Life belongs to it, too; for life is the actuality of mind, and the UM is that actuality; and its independent activity is the best life and eternal life. We assert, then, that God is an eternal and most excellent living being, so that continuous and eternal life and duration belong to it. For that is what the UM is. (M 12.7)

Aristotle's Laws of Thought: A or not-A

Law of Excluded Middle; Everything is F or not-F

Aristotle's Laws of Thought: A=A

Law of Identity; Everything is identical to itself

Aristotle's Laws of Thought: Not-(A and not-A)

Law of Non- Contradiction; Nothing is both F and not-F

The four causes:

Material, Formal, Efficient, Final

Why does this table exist? example and four cause explanations

Material: B/c it is made of wood Formal: B/c is has the form of a table Efficient: B/c someone made it Final: B/c we need something to put things on

What is it that makes something a substance?

Matter? But matter is just potentiality. 'Prime matter', i.e. matter without form cannot have independent existence. It lacks the substantiality required to be a substance. ESSENCE

1. All animals are mortal. (All M is P.) 2. All humans are animals. (All S is M.) 3. Therefore, all humans are mortal. (Therefore, all S is P.)

Mediated Inference or Syllogism

What is Nature?

Of the things that exist, some exist by nature, others through other causes. Those that exist by nature include animals and their parts, plants, and simple bodies like earth, fire, air, and water—for of these and suchlike things we do saythat they exist by nature. All these obviously differ from things that have not come together by nature; for each of them has in itself a source of movement and rest. This movement is in some cases movement from place to place, in others it takes the forms of growth and decay, in still others of qualitative change...But a bed or a garment or any other such kind of thing has no natural impulse for change at least, not insofar as it belongs to its own peculiar category and is the product of art. (PH 2.1)

"Some things are universals, others are particulars. By 'universal' Imean something what is naturally predicated of more than one thing; by 'particular',what is not. For example, man is a universal, and Callias is a particular." (On Interpretation, Bk 7)

Organon

"...in one way, things do result from luck, since they are coincidentalresults and luck is a coincidental cause. But luck is not the unqualified [and hence non-coincidental] cause of anything. the [unqualified] cause of a house, for example, is a housebuilder, and the coincidental cause a flute-player; and the man's coming and collecting the debt, without having come to collect it, has an indefinite number of coincidental causes -he might have come because he wished to see someone, or was going to the court or the theatre." (P, 197a, 10-20)

Physics

"Clearly, then, luck is a coincidental cause found among events of the sort that are for something, and specifically among those of the sort that are in accordance with a decision." (P, 197a5)

Physics

"Just as some things are something in their own right, and others are something coincidentally, so also it is possible for a cause to be of either sort. For example, the cause of a house is, in its own right, the housebuilder, but coincidentally the pale or musical thing." (P, 196b 25-30)

Physics

It is clear, then, that there are causes, and that they are as many in number as we say; for they correspond to the different ways in which we can answer the question "why?" The ultimate answer to the question can be reduced to saying what the thing is . . . or to saying what the first mover was . . . or to naming the purpose . . . or, in the case of things that come into being, to naming the matter . . . .

Physics

Since there are these four causes, it is the business of the natural scientist to know about them all, and he will give his answer to the question "why?" in the manner of a natural scientist if he refers what he is being asked about to them all—to the matter, the form, the mover, and the purpose. (PH 2.7)

Physics

What does the unmoved mover think about?

Plainly it thinks of what is most divine and most valuable, and plainly it does not change; for change would be for the worse. . . . The mind, then, must think of itself if it is the best of things, and its thought will be thought about thought.

Change

Potentiality, Substance (Matter and Form), Actuality

Connection b/w words and substances

Primary substances and Secondary substances

S, P, M 1. All M is P. 2. All S is M. 3. Therefore, All S is P.

S: Subject Term (of conclusion) P: Predicate Term (of conclusion) M: Middle Term Major Premise: Connects M and P Minor Premise: Connects M and S

The faculties of the soul

The vegetative soul Nutrition and reproduction The animal soul Perception Desire Locomotion Imagination The rational soul

Events?

Serve a purpose--> In accordance with the intention of the person Do not serve a purpose (Accidents)--> Not in accordance with the intention of the person-----> Luck or Chance OR not intentional but purposive

Mode of cognition: Necessary Precondition

Sight: Light Reasoning: Active Reason

Mode of cognition: Object

Sight: Visible Forms Reasoning: Intelligible Forms

Mode of Cognition: Recipient

Sight: Eye Reasoning: Passive Reason

arche in PA

Since we know and believe through the first, or ultimate principles, we know them better and believe in them more, since it is only through them that we know what is posterior to them . .. . This is because true, absolute knowledge cannot be shaken. (PA 1.2)

Types of S-P Statements: Particular Affirmative

Some humans are mortal. Some S is P.

Types of S-P Statements: Particular Negative

Some humans are not mortal. Some S is not P.

First principles

Statements that constitute the basis for all other statements in a certain field. For Aristotle, they can be inferred via induction from particular cases.

Square of Opposition: P.N. and P.A.

Subcontraries (cannot both be false but may both be true) Some S is not-P and Some S is P are subcontraries.

Unmoved mover

That without which none of the other movers would move, the goal toward which they are striving, their final cause.

Four causes: Material

The "out of which" a thing comes to be

The world

The distinction between artifacts and nature-facts; the distinguishing character of nature-facts The four causes: Material, formal, efficient, and final The character of teleology; its connection with potentiality and the lawfulness of change That the natural world is knowable, so there is no reason to demote it to second-class reality status

Four causes: Final

The end, purpose, plan, telos

Four causes: Formal

The essence or definition or whatness

Material cause

The matter constituting some particular thing. What makes it the individual thing it is.

Emergent Epiphenomenalism

The mind emerges from the body.

Functionalism

The mind is the function of the body.

The mean

The point between extremes (of feeling or behavior) at which virtuous action lies. Discerned by practical wisdom.

Metaphysics

The science of Being qua Being The Substance of Substance The Immovable, the Unchangeable,The Perfect

Essence

The set of characteristics that make a certain thing the kind of thing that it is.

Four causes: Efficient

The source of change or coming to be

Where does knowledge begin?

The starting point of demonstration is an immediate premise, which means that there is no other premise prior to it. (PA1.2)

Substance and form in metaphysics

There are many ways in which the term "being" is used, corresponding to the distinctions we drew earlier, when we showed in how many ways terms are used. On the one hand, it indicates what a thing is and that it is thisparticular thing; on the other, it indicates a thing's quality or size, or whatever else is asserted of it in this way. Although "being" is used in all these ways, clearly the primary kind of being what a thing is; for it is this alone that indicates substance. ... so what is primarily—not in the sense of being something, but of just quite simply being—is substance. (M 7.1)

Organon

Thought- Language- Being

To say that what is is not, or that what is not is, is false and to say that what is is, or that what is not is not, is true.(Metaphysics 4.7)

Truth as a connection between language and the world

Square of Opposition: U.A. and P.A.

U.A. implies P.A. All S is P implies Some S is P.

Square of Opposition: U.N. and P.N.

U.N. implies P.N. No S is P implies Some S is not-P.

some key areas to study are the four causes, change, truth, arguments, and substance.

VERY IMPT

Categories

Very general concepts describing the basic modes of being. Aristotle distinguishes ten, including "substance," "quantity," and "quality."

The good life

Why precise answers are not available for questions about the best life or the right thing to do in a given circumstance Why happiness—eudaemonia—is not pleasure or honor Why happiness is activity, why it is activity of soul, why it is in accord with reason, and why it is excellence in the performance of that activity Why, and how, the good life includes pleasure That a happy life does require modest external goods What kind of thing a virtue is: A habit or disposition That the virtues are attained by practice That virtue lies in a mean between extremes That the function of reason is to discover the mean for us in a given circumstance How Aristotle's ethics is not Sophistic relativism, but does involve a kind of objective relativity That Aristotle assumes we are responsible for our actions unless we can provide an excuse That legitimate excuses are of two sorts: Ignorance (of facts) and compulsion That the very best life is a life of contemplation—a life most like the life of God

Can valid argument be unsound?

Yes. ex: 1. All humans are aliens. 2. All aliens are invisible. 3. Therefore, all humans are invisible.

Virtue

a habit that makes it easy to do the right thing in the appropriate circumstances.

De anima

about the soul, wax and signet ring ex, problem of mental causation, 3 substances, mind/ body, faculties of the soul, passive and active intellect, understanding a thing

active reason

activates the intelligible forms. It makes what it potentially intelligible, actually intelligible; hence, it makes all things.

If all A is B and all B is C, then

all A is C

arche

immediate premises that are better known than what we prove by them through demonstration

Categories are

indicators of the different ways things can be..

Perhaps the body is all aobut the material and efficient causes and the mind....

is all about formal and final causes

Since there were three kinds of substance, two of them physical and one unmovable, regarding the latter we must assert that it is necessary that there should be an eternal unmovable substance. For substances are the first of existing things, and if they are all destructible, all things are destructible. But it is impossible that movement should either have come into being or cease to be (for it must always have existed), or that time should. For there could not be a before and an after if time did not exist. Movement also is continuous, then, in the sense in which time is;for time is either the same thing as movement or an attribute of movement.And there is no continuous movement except movement in place, and of this only that which is circular is continuous. But if there is something which is capable of moving things or acting on them, but is not actually doing so, there will not necessarily be movement; for that which has a potency need not exercise it. Nothing, then, is gained even if we suppose eternal 6 substances, as the believers in the Forms do, unless there is to be in them some principle which can cause change; nay, even this is not enough, nor is another substance besides the Forms enough; for if it is not to act, there will be no movement. Further even if it acts, this will not be enough, if its essence is potency; for there will not be eternal movement, since that which is potentially may possibly not be. There must,then, be such a principle, whose very essence is actuality. Further, then,these substances must be without matter; for they must be eternal, if anything is eternal. Therefore they must be actuality.(M, 1071b 1-25)

metaphyics

"For human beings originally began philosophy, as they do now, because of wonder, at first because they wondered at the strange things in front of them, and later because, advancing little by little, they found greater things puzzling -what happens to the moon, the sun and the stars, how the universe comes to be. Someone who wonders and is puzzled thinks he is ignorant (this is why the myth-lover is also a philosopher in a way, since myth is composed of wonders); since, then, they engaged in philosophy to escape ignorance, they were evidently pursuing scientific knowledge [simply]; for the sake of knowing, not for any further use."

metaphysics

There is something that is always being moved in an incessant movement, and this movement is circular . . . : and so the first heaven will be eternal. There must, then, be something that moves it. But since that which is moved, as well as moving things, is intermediate, there must be something that moves things without being moved; this will be something eternal, it will be a substance, and it will be an actuality.

metaphysics

sharpness: axe vision: eye wax seal: signet ring

mind: body

Can pure form admit change or movement?

no for both require potentiality to occur. so pure form would be eternal as well.

Wax and the signet ring example

no need to inquire whether the soul and the body are one

Passive reason

receives the intelligible forms; it becomes all things

Truth, according to Aristotle,

represents things as they are..

Parmenides: focused on subject, not predicate Plato: focused on predicate, not subject Aristotle:

sees the importance of both

Souls are what make things alive. Forms are what make things what they are, so we should think of....

souls as forms of living things

great chain of being idea

souls stretch on a continuum from plants on up to the unmoved mover growing increasingly complex and more perfect

Kinds of Predicates

substance, quantity, quality, relative, where, when, being in a position, having, acting on, being affected

Distinguishing primary from secondary substances

the "is" of existence from the "is" of predication

organon

thought- language- being, nature does nothing in vain, subject- predicates, laws of thought, syllogisms, knowledge, soundness and validity, arche of knowledge

Pleasure, for Aristotle, is

unsuitable as the principal end for rational creatures..

physics

what is nature?, change, 4 causes, luck/ chance, determinism, unmover mover/ god,