Aristotle Part 1

Front 1

Aristotle's problems with Plato:

Back 1

Since forms are separate and completely unchanging, they cannot effect perceptible or changing things.

Third Man Problem: If "man" defines the form MAN, then MAN turns out to be a man in addition to all the original men "man" applied to. But since it is a type, it cannot be any of its tokens. So, once is forced to posit another form, i.e., another man, but the same argument then applies ad infinitum.

Hint 1

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Front 2

Problems with universals in Aristotelian system:

Back 2

A universal is a type, not a tokem.

Scientific understanding of particulars requires that we find a set of elements to explain these things, which are fewer and as real.

Scientific knowledge deals with universals.

But Aristotle is unwilling to grant that universals are just as real as the concrete particulars they are common to.

He never gives up his view that universals are not real seperable things.

Hint 2

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Front 3

The Four Fold Division of Things, Two Relationships:

Back 3

x is said of y:
Both its name its definition are predicated of the subject. Socrates: Man.

X depends on Y for its existence. Smile: Face.

IF A IS PRESENT IN B, IT CANNOT BE SAID OF B. (White is in a wall, but the wall is not white. Colors and walls are radically different).

x is in or present in y:

Front 4

The Four Classes:

Back 4

Said of but not in:

In but not said of:

Said of and in:

Neither of nor in:

Front 5

Human being is said of Socrates but it is not in anything.

Individual knowledge.

Types of the class 2. Knowledge.

Individual concrete things, like persons. Also disembodied minds.

Back 5

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Front 6

Things said of subjects are:

Things not said of subjects are:

Back 6

Universals.

Individuals. Numerically One.

Hint 6

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Front 7

What are primary substances?

Back 7

The things in the 4th class of the fourfold division, i.e., they are the things that are neither said of not present in anything.

Hint 7

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Front 8

What are secondary substances?

Back 8

The genera or species of primaries.

What is everything else?

Hint 8

Everything else is either said of or present in a primary substance.

Aristotle takes this as establishing on ontological priority of primary substances.

Front 9

Everything else is either said of or present in a primary substance.

Aristotle takes this as establishing on ontological priority of primary substances.

Back 9

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Front 10

Define Teleological and Ontological:

Back 10

Teleology: a doctrine explaining phenomena by their ends or purposes.

Ontology: study of the nature of being, the basic categories of being and their relations.

Hint 10

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Front 11

Pros Hen Homonymy vs. Pure Homonymy:

Back 11

Pros Hen: Occurs where the name primarily refers to a certain things and then derivatively to other things in virtue of their relation to the first. E.g. Medical

Pure: Occurs with "bank" in English. The word is really two words in the same phonemic form.

Hint 11

Aristotle does not think there is anythign common to things in diff. categories. But we say they are all beings, each of them is one, etc. So, he invented pros hen, allowing us to predicate the same name without supposing any common item, but without saying the name is just ambiguous either.

This allowed Aristotle to circumvent the Socratic demand for a "one over the many", since in this type of homonymy, no single definition covering all application is possible.

Front 12

Aristotle does not think there is anythign common to things in diff. categories. But we say they are all beings, each of them is one, etc. So, he invented pros hen, allowing us to predicate the same name without supposing any common item, but without saying the name is just ambiguous either.

This allowed Aristotle to circumvent the Socratic demand for a "one over the many", since in this type of homonymy, no single definition covering all application is possible.

Back 12

X

Front 13

Pros Homonymy and Being:

Back 13

Being applies primarily to substances, then secondarily to the items in the other categories in virtue of their relationships to substance.

This reinforces Aristotle's ontology.

This allows Aristotle to propose that there is a science of being qua being, even though there is no single definition that applies to all beings.

Hint 13

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Front 14

First Philosophy:

Back 14

Primarily treats substances, and then secondarily all the other sorts of being.

Would coincide with physics if the only substances were things that come into being and pass away (natural substances). But Aristotle believed that there were immaterial minds outside of that sphere, hence the class of beings is larger than that of natural substances.

Hint 14

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