Aristotle’s Philosophy: Key Concepts and Theories

Posted on Aug 20, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics

Aristotle’s Philosophy (384-322 BC)

I. Major Differences with Plato

If forms are the essence of things, how can they exist separately?

If forms are the cause of things, how can they exist in a different world?

Plato’s explanation of stability and change was not sufficient.

II. How Aristotle Analyzed an Object

Form: Universal, essence, “whatness”

Matter: “Thisness”

Substance: An object with both form and matter.

  • Each substance is analyzed in terms of accidents, essential, and non-essential.
  • Change is explained by potentiality and actuality.
  • Each individual substance is a self-contained teleological system.

“Nature is a teleological system in which each substance is striving for self-actualization and for whatever perfection within the limitations allowed it by its particular essence.

Entelechy: The creative drive or inner urge that impels all things to achieve their purpose in life.

Prime Mover: Perfection, goal toward which all things are moving.

III. Three Kinds of Thinking

  • Theoretical
  • Productive
  • Practical/Ethical

IV. Four Causes of a Substance

  • Material: The matter
  • Formal: The form
  • Efficient: The actual force that shapes or forms the matter
  • Final: The ultimate purpose of the object

V. Aristotle’s Ethics

  • Notion of goal or purpose
  • Every act is performed for some purpose — the good of the act
  • The goal is happiness — we are not to live a wasted life without purpose
  • Happiness is sought for its own sake
  • Question of happiness: What is the function of a human being?
  • Answer: An activity of the soul which is according to virtue (excellence) and in conformity with reason
  • Happiness = Philosophical Virtue + Moral Virtue
  • Moral Virtue = The Golden Mean

VI. Aristotle’s Aesthetics

  • Art can be representative of higher truths
  • Catharsis — a cleansing of passions

VII. The Three Laws of Thought

  • The Law of Identity: A is A
  • The Law of Non-Contradiction: A thing B cannot be both B and not B at the same time.
  • The Law of Excluded Middle: A thing C is either C or it is not C

VIII. Epistemological Continuum

Empiricism > Induction > Senses > a posteriori > Synthetic

Rationalism > Deduction > Mind > Reasoning > a priori > Analytic

IX. A Categorical Syllogism

Major Premise: All men are mortal

Minor Premise: Socrates is a man

Conclusion: Therefore, Socrates is mortal

Tests of Validity for a Syllogism

  1. The middle term must refer to all members of the class at least once.
  2. A term in the conclusion referring to all members of a class must also refer to all members of the class in the premises.
  3. The premises must not both be negative.
  4. If one of the premises is negative, the conclusion must also be negative.

Common Fallacies

  • Post Hoc
  • Black or White
  • Argumentum Ad Ignorantiam
  • Argumentum Ad Hominem
  • Contradictory Assumptions
  • Begging the Question
  • Hypothesis Contrary to Fact
  • Equivocation
  • False Obversion
  • False Conversion
  • Fallacy of the Strawman
  • Argumentum ad Verecundiam
  • Argumentum ad Baculum
  • Argumentum ad Misericordiam

Value: General Assumptions

  • We can’t have too much.
  • It is not valued simply because of its utility.

Meaning: Knowledge is justified, true belief.

Belief: I don’t know it if I don’t believe it.

True: Is it true because I believe it? Correspondence

Tests of Truth

  • Warrantability
  • Correspondence
  • Comprehensiveness
  • Simplicity (Ockham’s Razor)
  • Pragmatic Test: Cash Value
  • Livability

William of Ockham

  • Began development of empiricism

Ockham’s Razor

  • Also principle of parsimony, simplicity, economy
  • Entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity
  • The number of entities used to explain phenomena should not be increased unnecessarily
  • The simple explanation is the one most likely to be true, depict reality as it is.
  • So, we look for straightforward explanations of phenomena that can be discovered by observations. This excludes all metaphysical explanations.

Justified

  • Give an account for
  • Upon what grounds is my belief based
  • That which constitutes proper warrant for believing

Reason

  • Rationalism
  • Faculty Mind/Thought
  • A priori truth
  • Analytic statements: Definitions, math, necessarily true
  • Limitation: We don’t necessarily know anything about the real world

Experience

  • Empiricism (we make sense of what we sense)
  • Sensory Data
  • A posteriori judgments
  • Synthetic statements: Statements of fact, verified by observation
  • Limitation: Statements of fact are only probable; never certain.

Intuition

  • Plato: Perfection
  • Rene Descartes: God
  • John Locke: Self
  • Immanuel Kant: Objects exist in time and space
  • G.E. Moore: Good

Revelation

  • What is our criteria for judging revelational or religious truth claims?
  • Reason, experience, and intuition?
  • Pragmatism/Consequentialism
  • Is there another avenue?