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Aristotle
(384 322 B.C. )
Metaphysics and Epistemology

Names, Terms and Concepts

Aristotle (384 322 B.C. )

Aristotle is sometimes referred to as a this worldly philosopher whereas Plato is

sometimes called a other worldly philosopher
This distinction becomes important when we turn to their disagreement concerning
Platos theory of the forms
Aristotle finds at least three problems with Platos realm of the Forms

Three problems with the Forms

Aristotle was Platos most famous student

Aristotle joined Platos academy at the age of seventeen
Aristotle founded his own school called the Lyceum after Platos death twenty years later
Aristotle spent mornings walking with the students talking about philosophy
Peripatetic is a Greek word meaning walking around and sometimes Aristotelians are called
Peripatetics
Aristotle made numerous contributions to many areas of philosophy

Aristotles criticism of Plato

Categories
Substance
Causation
Teleology
Potentiality and Actuality
Levels of Reality
Empiricism
Nous

Problem one: Plato, in attempting to explain reality, complicates unnecessarily by adding a whole
new world that also needs an explanation
Problem two: Aristotle is interested in explaining the world as a changing world Platos Forms do
not change so they cannot help in explaining the phenomena of change in the empirical world
Problem three: Plato confuses the human ability of abstraction with independent existence. As
humans we can generalize and find common features common to separate objects such as red
things but that does not mean that there exists somewhere something called redness

Aristotles ideas on Reality

Aristotle believes that most of the previous metaphysicians have made the
error of oversimplification
Aristotle believes that when trying to understand reality we must organize
it into ten categories
These categories are the basic components of reality

The Ten Categories

Ten Categories of Being

The idea of Substance

For our purposes the category of Substance will be the most important to
investigate
Aristotle belies that Substance is composed of two important features
These features are

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Aristotles concept of Matter

Aristotle, unlike Plato, believes that the objects that really exist are the ones that we perceive through our senses
We perceive matter as a generic kind of stuff but an object of perception is also one that has form
Imagine two identical statues of a horse side by side and one is made of wood and the other is made of marble,
Imagine the matter of the one horse would be the wood and the matter of the other would be the marble
The form of the statues is their essence of horseness which is basically what makes a horse a horse and not
something else
Although for the most part Matter is identified as physical stuff sometimes matter can be non-physical according to
Aristotle

Aristotles concept of Form

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Matter
Form

Substance is made of Matter and Form

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Substance
Location
Time
Quantity
Quality
Relationship
Posture
State
Doing Something
Undergoing something

For Plato, the Forms were an independent realm of existence that are actually more real than the copies we experience
in the physical world
Aristotles concept of form ( not capitalized usually to distinguish the difference with Plato ) is inseparable from the
matter
The idea behind Aristotles concept of form is that each thing that exists has something that it holds in common with
other similar objects
This common feature or essence is what Aristotle believes is its form
So, in my example earlier of the two statues of the horses, the marble and the wood would be the matter of the statue
but the form would be the essence of the horse how we recognize that it is a horse

Aristotles idea of Causation

Aristotle as mentioned earlier is interested in understanding the changing

world in its complexity
In order to track this change through time Aristotle noted that there was
four causes that need to be attended to
The four causes explain the process of change and why it happens

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The Four types of Causation

Aristotle believed that everything that exists has four cause or can be understood by posing four
important questions
The Material cause this question asks what is something made out of ?
The Efficient cause This answers an important question where does something originate or
come from?
The Formal cause This question gets at the essence of something what is its essence?
The Final cause is somethings purpose This question gets at somethings purpose what is the
purpose ?

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Summary of the Four causes

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Teleological view of the World

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Further refinements in change

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If you recall all substances contain both matter and form

But as something undergoes change it can look different through the process
Aristotle connects the ideas of matter with potentiality
In other words matter contains potentiality so in the text example a lump of clay has the potential
to become a brick
Form contains actuality
At any particular time something has a form or is actual so a lump of clay is actual and has form
if the clay is formed into a brick then its form changes and it transforms to a brick form

Aristotles levels of Reality

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In addition to the four causes that analyzed the important questions that
can serve as a tool to understanding reality as it changes, Aristotle also
introduces two other concepts that help in this regard
These two ideas are called actuality and potentiality

Potentiality and Actuality

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The point that everything has a purpose is the central notion behind the final cause
Teleological comes from the Greek word Telos meaning end or purpose
The idea that everything in nature or created by humans has a purpose or some goal
intended by it is called a teleological view of the world

For Aristotle the soul was seen as a living force

Aristotle identifies three types of souls
These souls are included in his five levels of being
The five levels give a comprehensive account of Reality

Five levels of Reality

Inorganic level all the things in nature that do not have life such as stones and earth these
objects occupy space
Plant level Plants are living things and they have the capacity to reproduce and continue into the
future with a purpose
Animal Level Animals are living and they reproduce, they have self movement and also have
emotions
Human Level Human beings have all the capacities of the animal but in addition the important
feature of reason

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Heavenly level Aristotle like most of his fellow Greeks believed that the moon, stars, and planets
were living things as well these living things were formed of a special element called
Quintessence

Aristotles Concept of the Soul

One of the differences that distinguish Plato from Aristotle is their concept
of the Soul
Aristotle concept of the Soul is that of a living force
So, the Plant, the Animal and Humans have souls with different capacities

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Aristotles three types of Souls

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Three Kinds of Soul

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Aristotles Epistemology

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Knowledge is a process

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Aristotle because he rejects Platos forms cannot appeal to the theory of recollection
Aristotle must come up with a theory that is consistent with his Metaphysical beliefs
Aristotle believes the objects of real existence are the ones that we encounter
through our sense perception
This theory is called Empiricism
Empiricism The view that all knowledge originates from experience

Humans, according to Aristotle, do not acquire knowledge all in one

moment but rather by means of a process
This process can be analyzed into four different steps
The first step is in accordance with Empiricism and that is we gain
information through the senses

Four steps of Induction

Induction is the process that we undergo to arrive at knowledge

The first step is called perception

Perception is the acquiring of information through the senses

The second step is memory memory is the ability to retain the perceptions in the mind

Some animals as well as humans have memory

The third step is experience By experiencing perceptions many times in conjunction with memory we form what is
called experience
The fourth step is knowledge When we are able to understand the universal or the essence of things through this
process our experience becomes knowledge
Aristotle refers to the human mind or ( Nous ) has the ability to form a Universal from the particular experiences that
we have through sense perception and memories

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Induction and its Process

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Websites and Links

Overview of Aristotle Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Aristotles Logic Stanfords Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Aristotles Metaphysics - Stanfords Encyclopedia of Philosophy