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Plato & Aristotle - Coggle Diagram
Plato & Aristotle
Plato's rationalism
True, eternal, unchanging knowledge cannot be gained empirically (A posteriori)
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Plato's cave
A01
Our minds are trapped in a state of ignorance, therefore we only experience imperfect, transient and everchanging things in the world of appearences
True reality must be eternal, unchanging and perfect in the world of forms, where true knowledge can be obtained
World of Appearances
Everything we experience is a particular, these are objects of everyday experience
Imperfect representations of the form they partake in from which they gain characteristics.
That BOMBOCLAT TREE is partaking in the perfect form of treeness, but when i look at it I see something transient, mutable and everchanging
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Prisoners (Us)
Cave (Reality)
Chained (Our minds in ignorance)
Shadows (Particulars)
Escaped prisoner (Philosopher)
Sun (Form of the good)
Real world (World of forms)
Lacks empirical evidence
This is a good thing, evidence cannot be trusted
Lacks empirical validity, has no explanatory power regarding our experience
Plato's forms are unchanging but cannot explain change
Occams razor ts
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FORM OF THE GOOD
Highest form, understanding it allows you to become a ruling philosopher king
Nietzsche - Dangerous error, creating ideas to suit emotional prejudices
Understanding good isn't enough, we must also cultivate it in order to become morally perfect
There is no one 'good', good in military strategy is killing efficiently, medicine is keeping people alive
Tough to unify these definitions
Form of the good
Higher forms (Justice, Beauty)
Lower forms (Treeness, catness)
Instantiations of forms (Particulars)
Third man
If there is a group of things that share a common form, then they all partake in thingness however this then leads on to infinite regress
The forms cannot partake in anything but themselves. Since things share characteristics by partaking in a form, yet forms themselves cannot take part in another form, it nullifies the argument
Recollection
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Our soul comes from the world of forms, opur soul apprehends a dim recollection of this before entrapment in the world of appearences
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One over many
Multiple trees - we still recognise it as a tree therefore suggesting there is an abstract concept of treeness
Heraclitus, even if the river is never the same, we still recognise it as unchanging and perfect even when in flux
Aristotle does not believe form is separated from object, a form is the essence of an object and does not exist separately from an object
Wittgenstein argued that there is no definable category. For example, a family picture. There are similarities between members of the family but it would be absurd to suggest that recognition of that family is due to the forms, but instead identifying direct resemblances between objects. Therefore we cannot assume that it is due to unconscious recognition of forms but instead a posteriori inferences
Aristotle's empiricism
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4 causes
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BIG BATTY BACON BAP
says that purpose is unscientific, as modern science evidences that a deterministic universe operating by the laws of physics seems to be completely without purpose.
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McGrath
Science tells us the what not the why, therefore it cannot be used to disregard the existence of purpose
DAWKINS
Just beacuse we can phrase a question that does not make it valid
'What is the colour of jealousy? Assumes jealousy has a colour
Arisottle hating on form
IT IS UNSICENTIFIC, big batty bacon boy says that whilst yes, form can exist it cannot be studied scientifically, so Aristotle better stay in his lane
AND form is literally just causation, colour is not a formal cause but instead wavelengths of light
PRIME MOVER
The material cause of the universe is determined by the constituent elements of ether and matter. The formal cause in the essential nature of things.
The efficient cause is the idea that the earth is at the centre of it, stars moving, moves ether, moves rotation of planets & maintains change in the planet's atmosphere therefore enabling change on earth
If you move an object, it keeps moving and stops. Therefore motion requires explanation which leads to a prime mover
The mover of the stars must be unmoving or else there would be an infinite chain of movers in order to bring change on earth
The prime mover must therefore have been unmoved and therefore cannot change( Pure actuality). It cannot be material
Therefore it is the final cause of the universe. It is responsible for the everlasting motion and chage of the universe.
Newton challenges Aristotle's belief in an object stopping. In the vacuum of space, nothing stops therefore everything continues moving which contradicts aristole's idea
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Sartre
Existence precedes essence, humans exist before their telos and therefore subjectively define their own purpose in life. People only claim to the idea of predetermined telos due to coping mechanisms of being purposeless
NOT A METAPHYSICAL ARGUMENT, GENETIC FALLACY I WIN
Nothing in experience dictates we have a telos, all we experience is 'radical freedom'