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Ancient Philosophers (Plato and Aristotle) - Coggle Diagram
Ancient Philosophers (Plato and Aristotle)
Socrates
Pre- Socratic philosophers mostly investigated natural phenomena.
Socrates is remembered for his teaching methods and for asking thought provoking questions.
Socrates said it was better to listen to your conscience than to listen to God.
Socrates taught through asking questions and was eventually sentenced to death; Plato them continued his thinking.
Plato
Plato studied ethics, virtue, justice and other ideas relating to human behaviour.
Plato suggested that there was a different realm, where people have access to different ideas or information.
Plato believed that certain truths were only knowable by the mind alone and not through observation. He believed that people do bad things when they do not use their recon properly and instead let their emotions rule them.
The Allegory of the Cave, taken from Plato's Republic is about how reality differs according to your own perception.
An extract, taken from Plato's Parmenides is about how your perception changes as you go through your life.
The Realm of Forms is a realm where a form of everything exists. There forms are spiritual- they are permanent and non-material. Our souls belong to the World of the Forms. We are trapped in our bodies and born into this world. We have forgotten the World of the Forms but remember glimpses of it. The Realm of Appearance reacts with the Realm of Forms.
Education is not about putting things into the mind, but about drawing out what is already there.
The material realm is perceived through our senses but the Realm of Forms can only be perceived through intellect and contemplation.
Form of the Good
(Highest Form),
Ideals (Forms of concepts)
(Higher Forms),
Forms of Phenomena
(Lower Forms)
Aristotle
Aristotle, was the son of a doctor-he used many medical examples and while interested in ethics, studied different sciences like physics, biology and astronomy.
Aristotle, being a pupil of Plato was one of the first people to
criticise
the theory of the Forms.
We use terms such as 'good' in many ways, however there is no single 'good'. For example a good rifle is not morally good, it is good because it is good for shooting with, not because it has moral qualities.
Plato assumes that for something to be pure it needs to be eternal.
Also,
if forms are essential to true understanding, why does no-one understand them?
The forms have no practical value as nobody studies them.
The idea that theoretical knowledge of something leads to being able to do it is wrong, practical knowledge is learned through practice and observation.
Some things have no form, for example there is no form of number.
Empiricists would object to the various assumptions that we may know anything about the world, a priori, other than by sense experience.
Aristotle argues that knowledges based on careful observations and reflections on what we have seen, for Aristotle we learn from the world around us- our knowledge is not innate. For example, he observed an eclipse on the moon and watched the shadow move across the face of the moon. from this he concluded that the earth must be spherical.
Key Terms
Rationalism is a theory suggesting that reason is the source of knowledge. The theory claims people have intuition and innate knowledge.
Empiricism is a theory suggesting experience is the source of knowledge. The theory claims people do not have intuition and innate knowledge.
A posteriori- looking back
A priori- Innate
Teleological is the belief that everything has a purpose.
Transcendent- greater, better and going beyond all other things; it refers to things that are beyond this world of space and time.
Aristotle's Objections
Some things can be pure without being eternal. For example, white can be pure white even if it only lasts a few moments.
The forms have no practical value, knowledge of health does not help with diagnosis or prescription.
Theory does not help people, practice and observation does.
Some things have no Form according to Platonists.
Aristotle's Four Causes
The Material Cause- the material out of which the thing exists.
The Formal Cause- the form in which the thing is arranged.
The Efficient Cause- the 'mover' that causes the thing ti be or happen.
The Final Cause- the purpose for which the thing exists.
Aristotle's Prime Mover
For Aristotle, God is perfect and everlasting. God is coeternal with the universe- the universe does not have a beginning. God is transcendent, not immanent.
As a perfect being, the Prime Mover simply contemplates it's own perfection- it is indifferent to the world we live in.
For Aristotle, God is not listening and does not care about the world. Praying to the Prime Mover is pointless- it does not care about this worlds is not listening.
The Prime Mover is like a magnet, unconsciously drawing things to it. It does not choose for things to move/ change but causes these changes. The role of the Prime Mover is as the 'final cause'- providing purpose or a goal.