Notes for History and Systems-Feb.

4th

On Logic
Aristotle is regarded as the founder of logic.

He dedicates a great deal of time speaking of movement. For him, the cause
precedes all else.
On politics:
Disagreed with Plato on the ideal form of government
Plato=totalitarian (scholar kings)

For Plato, the cause is the end result (the final point)
Aristotle conducted a variant of field research in purveying out varying forms of
government to determine which was the most effective.

On biology: Usually wrong.

About 25% of known works deal with biology. Typically, however, these are all
erroneous in their factual assertions.
Aristotle noted that studying plants and animals were paramount to understanding
humans and human nature.
Animals governed by nutritive, perceptive, and locomotor functions.
Humans=rational
Scala naturae: Hierarchy of becoming things with unmoved mover at top.
Those who distinguish parts in the soul, if they distinguish and divide in accordance
with differences of power, find themselves with a very large number of parts, a
nutritive, a sensitive, an intellective, a deliberative, and now an appetitive part.

The levels of life are plants (with only vegetative abilities), immobile animals such
as shellfish (adding sense), the higher animals (adding locomotion), and men
(adding mind).
Everything supposedly exists on this analog.
Aquinas owes a great deal of influence on Aristotle.

On Sensation
The importance of the five senses.
Theory of perception based on motion of objects causing movement in media
that each of the five senses were maximally sensitive to.
-Descartes, Muller, von Helmholtz
Each of the senses is specific to a different facet of perception. The notion of motion
and movement ultimately becomes the framework of our modern comprehension of
the universe around us.

On Reason
Sensation is necessary but it is not sufficient.
If something is a necessary cause, what does this mean?
Sensation is necessary for knowledge, but it is not sufficient. Consider again the
poverty of stimulus. As helpful as the dialogues about what occurs in the body, this
does not get us to what Chalmers might call the hard problem.
-Common sense: synthesize sensor experience
-Passive reason: using info to get along in everyday life. For Aristotle, this could be
likened to perception. Though it depends upon how passive one might regard as
passive reasoning. It is passive in the sense that activating it requires no effort.
-Active reason: abstraction of first principle. By first principle, here, we mean truths,
knowledge.

Recall that Alhazan first posited credible evidence for a dichotomy of a passive vs.
an active mind.

On Memory
Distinguished between memory from recall
Laws of association: contiguity, similarity, contrast, frequency
I see a horse, not horseness.
Things that are occurring simultaneously with one another.
Things that are different from one another contrast with one another.
Aristotle formulated his own laws of associations to split from Menos Paradox.

On Causation
Four Causes:
-Material: Whats the stuff?
-Formal: What shape does it take?
-Efficient: What work was done to get the form?
-Final: What is its ultimate state of being?

Entelechy: Everything has a built-in purpose, and continues developing until it does
so.

Newton disapproved of the notion of final cause. He was far more concerned with
the material forces that molded an object to its ultimate form.

Soul was a rough name for mind to early philosophers.

Everything After
Western Philosophy (in particular pertaining to issues of psychology) can be viewed
as a debate between Plato and Aristotle

Dualism vs. Monism: Plato-Dualism, Aristotle-Monism

Realism vs. Nominalism

Plato: Ideas are every bit as real as the material.
Aristotle: Nominalism-Concepts are merely names that we get.

Idealism vs. Materialism

Whats real?
Materialism: Matter is real, and ideas are not real.
Idealism: Ideas are real

Sensory vs. Rational Ideas

What is important? For Plato, its all about the rationalism.

Role of Mind and Body

What type of universe do we inhabit?

St. Thomas Aquinas

Aristotelianism vs. Christian Doctrine
His ideas are often East. As the Moors spill into Western Europe, so too do their
ideas. Ultimately the Christian Church repels the Islamic Moors out of Europe.
In what ways may we draw parallels between Aristotle and Aquinas?
Mind-body relationship? Where knowledge comes from? Organization of the Nature?
Causation?
Thus, Aquinas re-introduces Aristotelian thought back into Western civilization (such
as rational approaches into theology).
Appealing to Nature: The notion that we can see Gods law manifest itself in nature.
God cannot do 3 things: sin, copy himself, make a triangle with greater than 180
degrees.
Averroes two truths: philosophy and theology need not correspond.
In contrast, Averroes suggested that the two fields of philosophy and theology need
not be reconciled. Aquinas said that, while they dont need to correspond, they
should not contradict one another.
Finally, he believed that it would strengthen the church. In introducing Aristotle and
logic, theology would be strengthened through reason. But? Tune in next week for
an exciting chapter on: History and Systems of Psychology!