Aristotle Flashcards
What is the Efficient cause?
Is the activity that makes something happen. the efficient cause of a baby is its parents. The efficient cause brings about a change in something
Name all four causes
Material cause
Efficient cause
Formal cause
Final cause
What are Aristotle’s views on the physical world?
That the physical world around us is the key to knowledge and we can learn about it using our senses
When was Aristotle born and when did he die?
Born 385 bc and died 322bc
Aristotle was fascinated by what?
Aristotle was fascinated by the question of cause such as why are things the way they are? what causes them and why it exists.
What is the formal cause?
The formal cause gives something its shape allowing it to be identified for whatever it is. there can be certain characteristics of form that something need to have to be recognised as something such as a desk
What is the material cause?
a material cause is what something is made out of. scientists use this question when they are learning about something. the material cause of a rat would be its fur, bones, blood, organs etc.
what is the final cause?
this the most important cause. the final cause is somethings purpose its reason for existence. a final cause of a chair is for people to sit on it. this can also be known as telos
According to Aristotle what makes something good?
Something is good when it completes its telos e.g. an axe is good if it cuts well.
What does potentiality mean?
Potentiality is when something contains the ingredients to become something else.
What does actuality mean?
Actuality is when an object fulfils its potential and becomes something else.
What is the prime mover?
Prime mover is something that causes without being affected and must be a being with no potential. It is something that is already everything that it could be ‘pure actuality’
Give me another name for the prime mover?
Unmoved mover
What does the prime mover do?
It causes movement and change in all other things by attracting things towards itself. It does nothing but is the object of everything.
In what way does the prime mover exist independently?
The prime mover does not exist on anything else for its existence. The prime mover has no potential which means he has no capacity to change meaning he must exist necessarily.
