Topic 1 (Year 12): Ancient philosophy Flashcards
(12 cards)
What is Plato’s Realm of the Forms?
Opposing the World of Appearances. It’s where there’s a single perfect version of everything in our world.
What is Plato’s Form of the Good?
It’s the highest of the forms. All other forms take part in it’s goodness and perfection.
What is the allegory of the cave?
Plato’s extended metaphor for the difference between those with a rational mind (philosophers) and ‘regular’ people.
What does the prisoner represent in the allegory of the cave?
The philosopher’s mind which comes to realisation once the rigid structures of society have been pulled down, like the escape from the cave.
What does the sun represent in the allegory of the cave?
The Form of the Good.
What are Aristotle’s 4 causes?
Formal, efficient, material, and final.
What do Aristotle’s 4 causes answer?
The ‘how’ and ‘why’ an object came to be.
What/who is Aristotle’s Prime Mover?
A presence which we cannot see or feel but affects us. It is in a state of “pure actuality”, of which we subconsciously wish to attain. This is why the PM affects us without being in contact with us. It is entirely transcendent and in the first substance.
Rationalism definition.
The theory that reason rather than experience is the foundation of certainty in knowledge.
Empiricism definition.
The theory that all knowledge is based on experience derived from the senses.
Rationalism - Plato or Aristotle?
Plato.
Empiricism - Plato or Aristotle?
Aristotle.
