Plato and Aristotle Scholars Flashcards
Aquinas on Aristotle
Supports Aristotles focus on the natural world and accepts many of his claims about God, however, he also says that Aristotle’s concept of God does not make sense in a world so clearly influenced by a divine power
Dawkins on Aristotle
Praises Aristotle for his focus on the natural World, and sees him as the first scientist, but questions his reasoning regarding teleology and God
Russell on Aristotle
Believes that Aristotle is mistaken in believing that the universe has a definite cause, especially a metaphysical one and instead thinks that one must accept the infinite and incomprehensible nature of the universe
- “there is the universe and that is all”
Descartes on Aristotle
- Criticised Aristotle’s thought as it was based on observations made with the senses, there is no way that we can be sure that these same senses are not totally misleading
- the only thing i may know is that there is a mind there to doubt.
AJ Ayer on Plato
- You cannot make assertions of the existence of Metaphysical things
- “we shall maintain that no statement which refers to a ‘reality’ transcending the limits of all possible sense experience can possibly have any literal significance
Karl Popper on Plato
Plato looks for certainty in an uncertain world, when he cannot find it he seeks for a metaphysical answer
Aristotle on Plato
Felt that the theory of forms had many flaws in it’s formulation and application in practice, making it a theory he could not accept
-“Plato is dear to me , but dearer is the truth.”
Tadeusz on Plato
-Argued that the concepts to which Plato appeals to prove the theory of forms are valid are not concrete concepts but instead loosely defined groups of nouns
Mel Thompson on Plato
Plato ‘fails to illustrate the attractiveness of the physical world’- a ‘gloomy cave hardly represents the delights of the senses’
