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Paper 1 > Plato & Aristotle > Flashcards

Plato & Aristotle Flashcards

1
Q

describe the forms

A

an abstract property/quality, something that unqualifiably applies to that value; transcendent and pure

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2
Q

explain the allegory of the sun

A

the form of the good to the intelligible realm is what the sun is to ours; source of intelligibility, responsible for or capacity for knowledge

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3
Q

A.N. Whitehead On Plato

A

All of western philosophy is a series of footnotes to Plato

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4
Q

Four states of mind

A

Intelligence (noesis)

Reason (dianoia)

Belief (pistis)

Shadow / illusion (eikasia)

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5
Q

Doxa

A

Opinion

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6
Q

Criticisms of the Forms

A

1) no compelling evidence
2) they devalue existence and have no practical value
3) Plato’s own: how can things exist as Forms w/o division? If they are indivisible how can the be broken down?
4) Aristotle’s third man argument: infinite regression of Forms
5) Aristotle: you can’t separate Forms from examples of them e.g. whiteness

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7
Q

Aristotle’s Four Causes

A
  1. Material (matter)
  2. Formal (shape)
  3. Efficient (what caused it)
  4. Final (telos/ purpose)
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8
Q

Criticisms of the Four Causes

A
  1. Do humans actually have a telos? If so why is it unique?
  2. Fallacy of composition
  3. Purpose isn’t intrinsic to things but externally created
  4. Inconsistent with modern science e.g. Darwin. Dawkins says human nature search for pattern and purpose where none exist.
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9
Q

3 substance categories

A
  1. Perishable (subject to Four causes)
  2. Imperishable (heavenly bodies)
  3. Eternal (time and motion)

Examples - man / statue
Constant motion actuality - potentiality within 3 substance categories

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10
Q

Prime Mover

A
  • sustains motion from potentiality to actuality
  • total explanation for motion in the universe
  • outside time and motion
  • pure actuality (immutable)
  • it’s thinking is a thinking on thinking
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11
Q

Criticisms of Aristotle’s golden mean

A
  1. Unhelpful (Bernard Williams ‘the doctrine of the Mean is better forgotten’)
  2. Virtues aren’t quantities that can be put on a scale
  3. Aristotle doesn’t tell us where to draw the line (JL Mackie), he ‘only indicates the whereabouts of virtue’ (Sidgwick)
  4. Robert Louden: even the best people make the wrong choices sometimes, but this doesn’t render them unvirtuous.
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12
Q

Evaluate Aristotle’s Archer Analogy

A

Strengths of Archer:

  1. Useful bc it shows its flexibility and relativity to us (Peter Losin: it ‘can shed a good deal of light on the idea that virtue of excellence lies in a mean’ (the means in question are relative to us)
  2. Everyman can achieve good by engaging reason and cultivating virtues unlike elitist Plato
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13
Q

Criticisms of Aristotle’s idea of Causation

A
  1. Relies on his primitive notions about the structure of the universe and the nature of motion
  2. Problematic reasoning to the final cause (of humans e.g fallacy of composition) and nature of persons
  3. Hume’s criticism of causation
  4. Problematic idea of Prime Mover (why can’t matter move itself e.g animals move naturally without cause)
  5. Comparison w Sartre’s idea that existence precedes essence
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14
Q

Plato’s ideas on the body; soul

A
  1. Based on rationalist view
  2. Metaphysical assumptions make him think body and soul are separable
  3. At deAth the body dots but the soul goes to the WOF, contemplates them and reincarnates providing brain w knowledge through amnamnesis (recollection)
  4. Charioteer analogy
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15
Q

Aristotle on the soul

A
  1. Empirical account based on Causation
  2. Formal & efficient cause of humans is the soul
  3. Form and matter are inseparable (wax imprint analogy)
  4. Monist - soul is mortal so knowledge must be found in this life
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16
Q

Who said that ‘people find their good in many different ways’?

A

Owen Flanagan

17
Q

Keenan on Aristotle’s virtue

A

How is virtue measured? What time of virtuous should you be?

18
Q

Sidgwick And Mackie On Virtue

A

Sidgwick: ‘He only indicates the whereabouts of virtue’
Mackie: Where do we draw the line?

19
Q

Aristotle on Knowledge

A

Patriarch of empirical approach

  • tabula rasa
  • monist: soul is mortal so knowledge must be fond in this life
  • values synthetic statement (verifiable by sense perception)
  • inductive Knowledge
20
Q

Plato on Knowledge

A
  • a priori
  • dualist : amnamnesis (recollection of WOF)
  • phenomenal world is Doxa (opinion)
21
Q

what are the four characteristics of the prime mover

A

perfect, immaterial, immutable, impassible

22
Q

what find of cause is the prime mover and what implications does this have

A

final cause of the universe, everything moves towards it “out of desire to imitate God himself”

23
Q

Robert Louden on Aristotle’s virtue

A

even the best people make mistakes, this does not render them unvirtuous

24
Q

what are the four virtues, according to plato, which we arrive at when we use right reason

A

prudence, temperance, justice, courage

25
Q

Bertrand russel on the forms

A

says plato has mistaken adjectives for substantives (things with firm, independent existence)

26
Q

Aristotle’s idea of functioning

A

What indicates proper functioning for humans is being the rational among so using reason.

27
Q

Santayana’s criticism of Plato?

A

His view is ‘not the reality but the faultless ideal’

28
Q

What is the charioteer analogy?

A
  • Charioteer = reason
  • thumos = spirit
  • appetite - bad horse

Tripartite structure analogous to tripartite structure of the state

29
Q

Key terms for Plato:

A
  • doctrine of metatheses
  • rationalist
  • metaphysical assumptions about WOF
  • amnamnesis & dualism
  • tripartite structure (soul and state)
  • form of the good
  • simile of the Divided Line
  • the cave (episteme vs doxa)
  • noesis, dianoia, pistis, eikasia
30
Q

What are the Forms?

A

The Forms are the Universals by which particulars in the physical world can be identified.

31
Q

Key terms for Aristotle:

A
  • empiricism
  • tripartite soul (nutritive, sensitive, rational)
  • based on need for the ‘equally contributing entities’
  • imprint on wax
  • four causes & doctrine of causation
  • Hume in causation
  • the Prime Mover
  • motion from potentially to actuality
  • 3 substance categories (perishable, imperishable, eternal)
  • Aristotelian thought in contemporary debate
  • only primary realities are physical realities
32
Q

Contemporary Aristotelian thinkers?

A
  • Alisdair MacIntyre
  • Rosalind Hursthouse (ethics)
  • gadamer
  • Mc dowell (politics)
33
Q

Alisdair MacIntyre’s revival of Aristotle

A

He argues highest temporal goods, which are internal to human beings, are actualized through participation in social practices

34
Q

Contemporary Platonic approaches?

A
  • Iris Murdoch
  • Leo Strauss
  • Simone Weil
  • Alain Badiou
35
Q

Criticism that the Forms are ‘too heavily minded to be of any earthly good’

A

Relates to Paul in 1 Corinthians 3-4

  • Plato invented a metaphysical universe from incorrect supposition that a physical universe must have an opposite metaphysical one (doctrine of antithesis)
  • flawed doctrine of opposites (entities can have scales eg heat has no theoretical upper limit so not all entities have opposites)
  • Nietzsche’s criticism that Plato perverted whole course of philosophy
36
Q

Nietzsche’s criticism of Plato?

A

He suggested Plato’s search for truth in a world beyond this one has perverted the whole course of philosophy ever since it’s presupposition that our ideas about goodness and truth cannot possibly originate in this world

Paper 1 (10 decks)

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