Some people know more about the soaps than they know about what is happening in the world.
Weakness of the Analogy of the Cave
Plato compares desires with shadows and truth and virtue with light. But h fails to see how appealing desires can be for people.
Maybe the prisoner who was released might have preferred the shadows.
Weaknesses of the World of the Forms
What if it doesn’t exist? There is no way to prove that there is a world of the forms and even if there was, Plato wouldn’t accept it because he would reject any a posteriori proof.
Aristotle’s challenges
The Senses tell us about our world. Aristotle argued that the only way to understand the world was to study it – not to avoid it! This is consistent with modern science. Forms are of no practical use in everyday life.
Form of the Good: There are so many type of Good, it seems impossible that it could all come from one form of the Good.
The Third Man argument - To explain the similarity between the Form of humans and humans you would need a Form of the form of humans. This is called infinite regression.
Prep: “Plato’s theory of Forms can tell us nothing about the Real World.” Discuss (10)
Aristotle – Plato’s student and didn’t believe in the world of the forms
Aristotle’s World View
The world was constantly in a state of change
This change could be descried in terms of motion. E.g. moving from a seed to a flower
He was a keen astronomer and noticed that even the planets were always in motion. His was very important for his later understanding of God.
Unlike his teacher Aristotle didn’t think that the World could be explained by a priori knowledge and the world of the forms. Rather, he thought that much knowledge was based on careful observation (a posteriori knowledge)
His idea of good is when something fulfils its purpose.
In order to understand things you have to know what they are made of.
Substance: This is a thing’s essence; what it is e.g. a table is a substance
Accidents: Particular properties of a substance e.g. a table could be made out of wood and metal.
How to explain things
Aristotle wanted to explain things in the world and ultimately the world itself. To do this he thought you needed to know why a substance existed. Aristotle argues that there were 4 causes or reasons why something exists, Material Cause, Formal Cause, Efficient Cause, and Final Cause.
Material Cause, this comes from the word “matter” and explains what the substance is made of. Think of this as “stuff” in a general sense. Without it, nothing could exist.
Formal Cause, This refers to the substance’s “form.” This can be thought of as something’s properties or shape. Unlike Plato, Aristotle thought that each thing has its own form.
If you look at the table if it were not a table like shape, it would not be a table.
Efficient Cause this is what bring a substance about. In the case of our table, it could be a table-maker. But it does not have to be a human agent. In the case of a flower it could be biological processes.
Final Cause, Aristotle believed that everything had a “Telos” (meaning purpose, or end).
This cause refers to the purpose for which a thing exists. The table exists to set things on and possibly to eat at.
Plato was an Athenian Philosopher, he came up with the Theory of Forms, one part of this theory is to do with another world called the world of Forms, and this world contained perfect forms of every ideal and object. Aristotle was his student, he believed the world was in constant motion. Aristotle said that had a substance, what it was made of, and accidents, the properties of the object. Aristotle also said that there were 4 causes of
Why things change according to Aristotle
Aristotle’s four causes explain why things exist. But Aristotle noticed that things don’t stay the same forever.
He also needed to explain why things change.
To do this he explained that two terms were necessary: Potentiality and Actuality.
Actuality
Every substance we observe has actuality. This means that it exists in an actual state.
Think of an acorn. It is a substance and it exists in an actual state that can be described using the four causes.
Potentiality
However things also have potentiality. This is the potential for them to be something better.
Potentiality is actualised, i.e. happens when a thing fulfils its purpose.
So an actual acorn also has the potential to be an oak tree. This is its purpose.
So why do things change?
The world is always changing because the things in it are moving from potentiality to actuality.
This change must be explained. Therefore there has to be a Prime Mover, something that cannot change itself, this is his idea of God.
Volcano, explain it as Aristotle.