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Life’s Ultimate Questions“Aristotle”

Christopher Ullman, ProfessorChristian Life College

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Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)• Born not in Athens but in Macedonia

• Connected to the court of King Philip

• Studied in Plato’s Academy• Tutored Alexander the Great when

Alexander was a teenager• Founded a rival school in Athens,

the Lyceum• During his life, he left Athens three

times• After Plato’s death• After Philip II’s assassination• After Alexander’s death

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Why Aristotle is Important

• He’s one of the 4 or 5 greatest thinkers of all time

• Plato helped influence Augustine, and Aristotle helped influence Thomas Aquinas

• His teaching on properties can help us to understand the Incarnation

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Aristotle vs. Plato

� He rejected Metaphysical Dualism� The Forms were not separate from

particular things� They were in the particular things

� Reality was in the world of particular things� Things have substance

� There is only one world� The one we inhabit through our

bodies

FORMS

THINGS

THINGS, WITH

FORMS IN

THEM

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Aristotle vs. Plato, continued

� By rejecting Plato’s Two Worlds theory, he could reject Plato’s Two Kinds of Knowledge theory� Human knowledge can

be grounded on � The Senses � Reason

EMPIRICAL RATIONAL

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Aristotle vs. Plato, concluded

� By rejecting Plato’s Two Worlds theory, he could also reject Plato’s Body and Soul theory� Body and Soul are not

two radically separate substances� Humans exist as a

unified whole, a body-soul complex

� The soul is something about the body

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Aristotle and Ultimate Reality� Reality consists of Substances

� Things that exist or have being� Crayons� Cars� Students

� Every substance has two kinds of properties� Accidental (hule): nonessential attributes such as color or

size� A knife could have a wooden handle or a metal handle, and still

be a knife

� Essential (morphe): attributes which are necessary conditions� A knife that has lost its ability to cut is no longer a knife� Essence and Form are synonymous

The Highly Morphic (Hule-Morphic) Composition of Substances

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Four Causes(or Explanations)

� The Material Cause: what a thing is made of� Baseball Bat: wood

� The Formal Cause: the essential properties of a thing� Baseball Bat: tapered, round, knobbed, length of 27

– 36”

� The Efficient Cause: the activity that brings a thing into existence� Baseball Bat: the sweat, skill and desire of the

batmaker

� The Final Cause: the purpose for which a thing exists� Baseball Bat: a tool to swing at and occasionally hit

baseballs

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Categories

� A category is a predicate (a way of describing and classifying things)

� S is P (Subject and Predicate)� “The student is a person:”

� Person is the predicate or category that describes the student

� A dog is a mammal.� Socrates was a philosopher.� Harry Schmidt is an Iowan.� The box is cardboard.

� Think of categories as headings under which all things can be listed

� Aristotle’s Categories are the ultimate headings

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Kinds of Categories

� There are 10 kinds of categories

� “Socrates is _______”

� Human (substance)� A human (quantity)� Balding (quality)� In prison (place)� Plato’s teacher

(relation)� Alive in 400 B.C. (time)� Sitting (posture)� Dressed (state)� Drinking hemlock

(action)� Being poisoned

(passion)(Several of A’s categories are notoriously ambiguous)

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The Most Important Category

� Which category is essential?� SUBSTANCE

� After Socrates died, was he still human?

� If the bat is cut lengthwise four ways, it’s no longer a bat

� If an eye can’t see, it is an eye in name only

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Only God Never Changes

� You actually exist� You potentially

� Are a graduate of CLC� This would be an

alteration

� Could move to Hawaii� This would be a

locomotion

� Could grow an inch� This would be an

augmentation

� Could get hit by a bus� This would be a

corruption� Could be born again

� This would be a generation

� 2 Corinthians 5:16-17

� Your entelechy (final form) is� Ephesians 4:13� Romans 8:29� Romans 12:2

� God is Pure Form� All actuality� No potentiality

ACTUALITY POTENTIALITY

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You Change Because You’re Matter

� You are a substance made of matter

1. A particular object2. You can change 3. You cannot be in

other objects4. You have causal

power(Note: I am really not much of an Elton John fan)

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You Remain the Same Because You’re Matter & Form

� You are a substance made of matter & form

� You have properties you share with other like substances. These are

1. Universal 2. Cannot change3. In other objects, too4. Not able to cause anything

… they just are true

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Intellect: Passiveand Active

� Passive intellect� Receives info from the

senses� Of particular objects

� Fulfills the function of the mind’s matter� Provides a viewing

screen for an image (phantasm)

� Active Intellect� Processes the info from

the senses or from the reason

� Fulfills the function of the mind’s form� Provides the caption� Provides the narrative� Links the particular to the

universalIt won’t survive the death of the body

It will survive the death of the body

“A RED BALL!”

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God, according to Aristotle

� Necessary to reality� Unmoved Mover of the Universe� Pure Actuality� Can only think

� About himself!

� Radically transcendent & wholly “other”� And therefore, unknowable

� “Falls short of being philosophically, morally or religiously satisfying” -Nash

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Ethics, according to Aristotle (Part 1)

� Observe humans, and ask, “What do they want?”� Wealth� Fame� Power� Health� Family� Love� Pleasure

� Are any of these the final goal?� No, because you can

have each one, and still not be happy

� We seek each one of these in order to be happy

� Only happiness is sought for itself

� Happiness is the final, supreme goal

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Ethics, according to Aristotle (Part 2)

� Happiness is � Having lived a truly

good life� Impossible for one

to have happiness as a young person

� Only possible by reflecting back on the life one has lived � Did I live well?� Did I live rightly?

� If happiness is the destination, virtue is the road� How to be, not how to act

� Character, not rules, is to be

� Taught through the family and through the state

� Formed by habit

� The Golden Mean� Somewhere in between

the extremes of excess and deficiency

� The Paradox of Hedonism

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Properties and the Incarnation, Part 1

According to the Bible, � What are God’s essential

properties?� Omnipotence� Omnipresence� Omniscience� Eternality� Sinlessness� __

� If God lost even one of these, God wouldn’t be God

� Do humans have these essential properties?� NO

� Then, how could Jesus Christ be both man and God?� Let’s think about this

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Properties and the Incarnation, Part 2

� What are a human’s essential properties?� Having a capacity to

reason� Having a capacity to

experience emotions� Having a capacity to

choose� ________

� If a human lost even one of these, he wouldn’t be human

� What are some common properties of humans?� Born on Earth� Having two legs� Lacking omniscience� Lacking omnipresence� Sinful

� These aren’t essential, however

� They are accidental and non-essential

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Properties and the Incarnation, Part 3

� A person can be fully human only if he possesses all the essential properties

� A person is merely human only if he possesses all the essential properties …

� PLUS some additional limiting properties

� __________ is merelyhuman.

� Jesus is FULLYhuman …� Without being merely

human

� If we understand that a human’s essential properties exclude those which are limiting properties …� The Incarnation makes

a lot more sense

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PLATO and ARISTOTLE - I

P: The Ideal is Reality� The Ideal exists apart

from particular things� In a separate place: the

Realm of the Forms

A: The Ideal is Reality � The Ideal exists in particular

things� Hence, no need for a separate

Realm of the Forms

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PLATO and ARISTOTLE - II

� A: Senses tell us something of the Ideal� Use them, along with

Reason & Intuition

� P: Senses tell us only of particular things� Don’t rely on them� Rely solely on Reason &

Intuition

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PLATO and ARISTOTLE - IIIP & A: Reality is� Fully

Knowable� Fully GoodP: Emphasizes

Being, to explain Reality

A: Emphasizes Becoming, to explain Reality

Future philosophers will attempt to combine the best of Plato’s worldview with the best of Aristotle’s worldview

None of them will reject � Plato for Aristotle� Aristotle for Plato