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8 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What was Aristotle interested in? |
Why things exist as they do. |
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What do the 4 causes do? |
Explain why things exist as they do. |
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What are the 4 causes? |
Material- the matter out of which it is made. Formal- the shape imposed on it. Efficient- the cause of its existence. Final- the reason/purpose for its existence. |
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Which forms will change? |
The formal cause may change as appearance changes. |
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Explain the Prime Mover. |
The cause of motion and change. Exists by necessity. Unchanging and unmoved. Pure actuality and perfect. Eternal. Not made from matter- spiritual. Without parts and indivisible. Cause of motion and change and is also the ultimate goal of motion and change. Ultimate final cause. For Aristotle, prime Mover is God. |
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What is a Deistic god? |
Removed and uninvolved in the world. |
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Strengths? |
1) God as final cause supports Christian belief in purpose and meaning. 2) People innately believe and look for meaning and purpose 3) The idea of everything having an efficient cause has been adopted by Christian philosophers regarding God as creator (Aquinas' First Cause) 4) First cause- supported by Causation. 5) More acceptable to modernists/ scientists due to empiricism. |
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Weaknesses? |
1) God cannot be immanent and therefore is unattractive and imperfect. 2) It is unclear how an unchanging God can move anything by desire alone. 3) This is not a God to be worshipped - not personal- not the Christian God. 4) Hume argued that causation in unproved- all we have are 'successions of regularities' 5) Quantum Level- things seem to come into existence by random chance. 6) Chaos theory argues that things are completely random and there are things for which we don't know the cause. 7) Theory of evolution suggests random chance plays a part in life. |
