Aristotle’s positions struggle with his teacher’s. The biggest difference being that Aristotle was a realist ; he saw the value in analyzing the physical universe and trusted his senses. unlike Plato who believed in the universe of signifiers. Plato believed that we need to look beyond the physical universe for a metaphysical account of the existence. Aristotle refuted this. Aristotle ascertained nature and used logic and ground to explicate how it works ; he tried to happen the ‘action’ of why things exist and tried to do sense of them.
Besides. Aristotle’s attack was imperial and he trusted the usage of ground based on his experience. Aristotle rejected Plato’s dualism ; he thought that the organic structure and psyche are one. as the encephalon and organic structure are. This opposes Plato’s positions that the organic structure and psyche were separate. Aristotle believed in the four causes. the principal that everything has four causes of being: Material cause – refers to what a thing is made of. Aristotle used the illustration of a bronze sculpture and a silver disk. Aristotle would state that bronze or Ag is the stuff cause.
However. an object can hold more than one stuff cause. for illustration. the laptop I’m typewriting on is made of plastic. metal. wires and glass ; these would wholly be material causes. The stuff cause besides counters Plato’s theory of the universe of signifiers. he would state that my laptop has a perfect signifier nevertheless. it is made up of single things in order to be a laptop. all of the things it is made up of must hold their ain perfect signifier harmonizing to Plato. doing his theory contradictive. Formal cause – refers to the construction of an object. the form it takes that makes it what it is.
It is what we recognise as the thing we are looking at. An object must hold a specific order in order to be what it is. for illustration. a bronzy sculpture is non merely a ball of bronze. and it has been shaped into a sculpture in order to map. as my laptop has been assembled into an order so it works. Efficient cause – refers to how the object has changed from a province of potency to what it is. for illustration. the manner a bronze sculpture has been taken from a ball of bronze chiselled until it is made into a statue by the sculpturer.
The efficient cause of an object may non be every bit simple as this i. e. my laptop’s efficient cause may change from machines and people to plastic molds and screwdrivers. It is the cause of the alteration. Final cause – refers to the intent of an objects being ; the intent of a sculpture might be to be admired. the intent of my laptop is to allow me watch pictures of cats playing musical instruments on YouTube. Aristotle uses the illustration of wellness being the cause of walking. ‘Why does one walk? ‘ he asks. ‘that one may be healthy’ . The concluding cause is possibly the most of import of all of the causes.
Aristotle’s understanding did non stop at that place. he said that one time something has achieved a province of actuality. it will be in a province of potency. for illustration. take ‘whiteness’ . when my shirt is washed and becomes clean and ‘white’ but it has the possible to go soiled and ‘not white’ any longer. Aristotle besides came up with the thought of the Prime Mover. The Prime Mover is. harmonizing to Aristotle. the ultimate and concluding cause of the existence. He said that everything in the existence is in a province of alteration ( motus ) so the Prime Mover must be outside the existence. so that it is non affected by what happens interior.
The Prime Mover can non alter. because to alter something must be in a province of actuality and have the possible to alter i. e. an existent kid is a possible grownup. Aristotle does non see the Prime Mover as a God. because a God is a life being which effects what happens in the universe. nevertheless. the Prime Mover does non impact what happens in the existence. it is merely the cause of it. Aristotle says that the Prime Mover has to be because the existence has to hold a cause. The Prime Mover besides has to be ageless. because if something comes into being it must be caused by something else.
