Philosophy Notes: Plato - Aristotle

Philosophy Notes: Plato Socrates:

These notes will be on the Philosophy Test Wednesday, Oct. 23rd. The content discussed outside of Plato on Monday, Oct. 21 will not show up on the test.

Platos Backstory: (427 347 BC)

Original Name: Aristocles Earned Plato due to his broad shoulders from wrestling. Left Athens and travelled the world for ten years visited Mesopotamia, Egypt, etc. Travels to Israel are still debated. Returned to Athens in 387 and created a school called The Academy, named after the land owner. The safest, general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. Alfred Whitehead (You do not need to know the quote. Just remember that Alfred Whitehead considered Plato as a fundamental part of a large chunk of Philosophy)

Writings:
Platos writings are divided up into three classes: Early (Apology the most accurate representation of Socrates) Middle (Phaedo, The Republic)

Philosophy Notes: Plato - Aristotle

Late (Timeas Platos idea of a creation account by some lower being called The Demiurge) Seven Beliefs that Plato Opposed: 1. Atheism 2. Empiricism 3. Relativism 4. Hedonism 5. Materialism 6. Naturalism 7. Mechanism

Ideal World VS Receptacle World:

Plato believed that everything in existence has a perfect form that we refer to when examining an object the World of the Forms/The Ideal World. The world we sense is the Receptacle World Idealism: the belief in a world of ideas Realism: the belief that ideals are real Nominalist: ideas are only in ones head no actual existence

Philosophy Notes: Plato - Aristotle

Seven Characteristics of the Ideal World: 1. Geometry Earth Measure in a purely abstract/mental exercise 2. Number numbers are ideals, not physical, real objects 3. Sets classifying objects is a mental exercise 4. Definition the ideal world has an ideal definition for every meaningful word 5. Proposition if it is true, then it is eternally true 6. Properties qualities of a ting and the ability to apply them 7. Relation how we/other things interact with certain things

The Cave Parable:

(The Cave Parable is found in The Republic, Book 7) Multiple Prisoners are held captive in a cave (similar to the one above), bound by chains, only able to face forward

Philosophy Notes: Plato - Aristotle

Objects that catch the suns rays outside create shadows on the inside wall of the cave so the prisoners can see them, thinking that they are real objects because that is all they are used to (The Receptacle World) A prisoner who is brought out of the cave (The Receptacle World) and into the sunlight (The Ideal World) has difficulty adapting and is at first blinded. But after a time, the person adjusts and can see the sun (The Ideal of the Good). The once-prisoner will return to the cave, trying to free the others from seeing only the shadows (The Receptacle World) and bringing them to see reality (The World of the Forms). But of course no one likes that idea and so the prisoner suffers for his ideals (perhaps an allusion to Socrates?).

Platos god:
Anything close to Platos god is the Demiurge the craftsman of the receptacle world. The creation involves four components: (mentioned in the Timeas) 1. The Demiurge the Craftsman: 2. Matter the Ingredients 3. Receptacle World the Bowl 4. Forms the Recipe

Philosophy Notes: Plato - Aristotle

Dualism:
Plato believed in Dualism in three areas: 1. Metaphysical tension between the perfect (ideal) and the imperfect (receptacle) worlds 2. Epistemological tension between knowledge (ideal) and opinion (receptacle) 3. Anthropological tension between the soul (ideal) and the body (receptacle)

According to Plato, no knowledge is sense-experience (No S is P), whereas Aristotle is All knowledge is sense-experience (All S is P). We get our ideas of the Ideal World because our souls were there before birth (a priori knowledge before senses)

Aristotle: (384 322)

Explain the fundamental difference in philosophical perspective between Plato and Aristotle? 1. Aristotle is scientific, not metaphysical 2. Observation over intuition 3. Causation over Valuation Aristotle was born in Macedon (the more backwater side of Greece). His father was a physician to King Phillip II (father of Alexander the Great). At 18, Aristotle went to Platos Academy and stayed until Platos death. Aristotle didnt get to take over the Academy, so he threw a tantrum and traveled from 347 342 BC.

Philosophy Notes: Plato - Aristotle

After his travels, Phillip wanted Aristotle to tutor Alexander the Great.

When Phillip died, Aristotle returned to Athens in 335 BC. At the same time, Alexander started his world domination quest. Aristotle started a peripatetic school called the Lyceum.

When Alexander died, Aristotle left Athens in 323 BC to prevent the Athenians from sinning twice. Died a year later.

Writings:
The Organon: The Introductory Writings of Aristotle. Starts with the idea of Predication The types of predicates are separated into the 10 categories: substance, quality, relation, quantity, place, action, time, passion, situation, habit Substance: composed of primary (the thing itself) and secondary (the things class) Aristotle sees no perfect class, rather, he creates a perfect class in his mind by induction existence precedes essence (versus Plato who worked by deduction essence precedes existence) Induction: that mental process by which an object is moved in ou r understanding from primary to secondary substance. Other topics that Aristotle wrote about: Theoretic Science: Physics, Metaphysics, Mathematics, Biology, Psychology Practical Science: Ethics, Politics

Philosophy Notes: Plato - Aristotle

Poetic Science: Poetry, Rhetoric

Metaphysics:
Aristotle tried to look for a firm connection between the idea and receptacle worlds. Instead of a small link like Plato had, he wanted to combine them into one world.

Aristotle noticed that things tend to stay the same (Actuality) but that things also change (Potentiality) and that the change/lack of change does not happen by accident (Universal Determination). This was all foundational to science until the Scientific Revolution.

Philosophy Notes: Plato - Aristotle

Physics:

All things are composed of how we sense them, and what they actually are. What they actually are can be broken down into form and matter, which together constitute change. Form represents the actuality, matter represents the potentially.

Four Types of Change:

1). Context Change happens within space and time in the real world

2). Causes Material (the matter it starts from) Formal (what the final product looks like) Efficient (the one initiating the change)

Philosophy Notes: Plato - Aristotle

Final (the motivation/reason for the change)

3). Types Quantity Quality Place Substance (change of essence at what point is a table no longer a table?)

4). Limits You can have absolute form and absolute matter but all change happens in between these two extremes

Language:
Aristotle recognizes three different uses for language: 1. Univocal one use for a word. Mr. Gore is a great teacher. 2. Equivocal two differing uses for one word. Mr. Gore is cool (can either mean low temperature or awesome). 3. Analogical two similar/linked uses for one word. Mr. Gore is a bright teacher(can either mean smart or shining but the two words have an etymological connection).

Philosophy Notes: Plato - Aristotle

Aristotles god
Aristotles god is 100% Being and 0% Change. Therefore He is incapable of change He cannot acknowledge our existence because that means focusing on change and he cannot do that (some god ) He is the unmoved mover because somehow some way he makes things change indirectly by the power of attraction (Dont try to understand everything, just know this statement) Aristotles Four Apologetic Arguments: 1. Argument by Design/Purpose Since things are created, an intelligence must be there 2. Argument of Motion Since things tend to slow down, something must have started them up. 3. Argument of Necessary Being Something had to cause everything else because things dont cause themselves. 4. Argument of Causation Something created a reason for other things to come into existence because things dont cause themselves.

Psychology:
Everything reduces to matter, so the soul is also reducible (main factor: life). Anything animated has soul in it. Active Soul is intellect, Passive Soul is in animals.

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Philosophy Notes: Plato - Aristotle

Ethics
Four Levels of Happiness 1. Great Cause the highest level 2. Giving it is more blessed to give than to receive 3. Victory/Winning Paradox of the Zero-Sum Game 4. Pleasure Paradox of Hedonism Do not worry about the Philosophical Impasses that features next week.

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