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8/2/2019 Aristotle and Hume
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Away from IdealismAristotle and Hume
Introduction toPhilosophy
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Aristotle (384-322BCE) Stageira
Student of Plato and teacher of Alexander theGreat.
Prolific writer in various subjects, including physics,metaphysics, rhetoric, logic, politics, ethics, biologyand even zoology.
Member of Platos Academy 20years After going abroad, teaching Alex (13 yearabsence), he returns and is dissatisfied with thecurrent trends in the Academy
Lyceum - School in opposition to the Academy ofXenocrates Resident Alien so school in public gymnasium
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EpistemologyClassification of the Sciences Highest knowledge is for itself, not a means to anend
Philosophy is neither Dialectic (reasoning accurately
from given premises) nor Sophistry (one who earns aliving from apparent but not true wisdom)
Philosophy/Science reasons only from true premisesand is the disinterested employment of the
understanding in discovery of truth
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Speculative/ Theoretical vs. PracticalPhilosophy
Speculative/Theoretical: That which cannot be otherwise oruniversal truths i.e. metaphysics, physics, mathematics
Metaphysics Being qua Being or the concern with theuniversal characteristics which belong to the system ofknowable reality as such
Practical Philosophy Not an exact science as it deals with
things that can be otherwise, particulars vs. universals, i.e.ethics, politics, medicine.
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Plato Revisited
Plato Radical Difference between sense-perception and scientific/philosophical knowledge
A scientific truth is exact and definite, no definite
science about the material world, only probableopinion of the world of sense.
The IDEAS are not arrived at by any process ofabstraction from experience as all the particulars do
not reveal the universal but only approximations.
The Idea is Separate from EXPERIENCE, experiencereflects the IDEA
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Aristotle on Ideas
Ideas are poetic metaphors
All objects of knowledge are particular facts given in senseperception, the universal laws of science are mereconvenient way of describing the observed uniformities in
the behavior of sensible things. We cannot separate theFORM from the MATTER!
EMPIRICIST Senses first point the way toward knowledge
..BUT, sense experience cannot give us the cause ofthings, it does not explain the why Sense Experience notknowledge but ground for knowledge Knowledge of perception is immediate (anyone can do it) and
as such for knowledge of sense experience one must use
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Metaphysics: First Philosophy
Metaphysics Science which considers What Is simply in
its character of Being, and the properties it has as such.
All other sciences deal with some restricted property ofWHAT IS and thus considers its subject matter not
universally in its character of Being, or being real, but asdetermined by some special condition.
Metaphysics examines the MODES of Being What it is
and its qualities, actions
Substance What it is (apple) vs. its attributes (green,sweet) or actions (falling to the ground)
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Substance
Two Senses PREDICATE: Man, horse (special class of predicates) Socrates
is a man
Primary Sense This man, This horse
Only subjects of predication
Remains the same, regardless of predication
Processes go on in them, they are what run the gamete ofbirth and decay, what is the thing that can be predicatedinfinitely
Bearers of all qualities, terms of all relations, and agentsand patients in all interaction
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Matter and Form
Individual Thing Desk made of the same stuff as a housebut unlike in having a different shape
Two different components of SUBSTANCES: Matter and Form
Inseparably United
Matter is not just Physical or Corporeal things but the stuffwhich can receive FORM
Your character Impress a Form onto it
Matter The relatively indeterminate
Form What gives structure
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Potential and Actual
Matter and Form Potential to Actual
Living Organism Embryos of two animals
One has the potential to be a human being, while the other anape
A seed This is not yet an oak but has the potential
A person Right education brings out the potential for
reason
Process where a Form is realized Energeia
Realized Form Entelechy
Not unending process but everything has an END (TELOS)
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METAPHYSICAL WORLDVIEW
Universals exist only in things (in re), never apartfrom things. Unlike Plato we must study particularphenomena to discover the essence/form residing inthem.
Universal/Form is something identical in each of itsinstances. So all desks are similar in that there isthe same universal, desk, in each desk.
There is no Platonic Form of deskness, standingapart from all desks; instead, in each desk there isthe same form of desk which all desks possess inthemselves.
onc t Formation ocusin on ubstanc o
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Metaphysics
To know something is to know its CAUSE What are the causes of this world order?
Four Causes1. Material: Seed2. Formal: law of growth
2. Efficient: parent oak
3. Final: full adult oak
Matter is Potential, Power, Possibility to Receive Form
Form as Actuality, What it is
Substance Combination of Matter (potential) and Form
(actual) Matter and Form cannot be separated
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Hume1711-1776
Scottish Philosopher
Empiricist (Opposed to DescartesRationalism Rejection of Newtonian Physics)
Lost faith at an early age
Desire not Reason governs human behavior
Reason is and ought only to be a slave of thepassions.
No innate knowledge, all knowledge gainedvia experience
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On PhilosophyEnquiry 1
It seems then that nature has pointed out a mixedkind of life as most suitable to the human race, andsecretly admonished them to allow none of thesebiases to draw too much, so as to incapacitate them forother occupations and entertainments. Indulge yourpassion for science, says she, but let your science behuman, and such as may have a direct reference toaction and society. Abstruse thought and profoundresearches I prohibit, and will severely punish, by thepensive melancholy which they introduce, be theendless uncertainty in which they involve you, and bythe cold reception which your pretended discoveriesshall meet with, when communicated. Be aphilosopher; but, amidst your philosophy, be still aman.
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Enquiry Book 2: On the Origin ofIdeas1. Impressions (Sensations) vs. Ideas (Memory andImagination)
A. Perception/Sensation is more lively thanMemory/Imagination (Being burnt vs.
Remembering/Imagining being burnt)
B. Being angry vs. Remembering the Feeling
All the colors of poetry can never paint naturalobjects in such a manner as to make thedescription be taken for a real landscape. Themost lively thought is still inferior to the dullestsensation
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Book 2
Empiricism Perception/Sensation is the cause of allideas
But the mind can take us anywhere? Even to what
we have never experienced? Unbounded Libertyof Thought? No!
1. Ideas result from compounding (gold
mountain, mermaid), transposing (virtuoushorse), augmenting and diminishing
2. Without impression Ideas are meaningless (God
and Self)
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All Ideas from Impressions
Complex Ideas God is a compound and not a reality as such
Berkeleys All Perceiving God No direct impression of this
Self is a compound of experiences and not a reality as such No Dr. Layne without my experiences, i.e. no essence/soul
separate from the hundreds of impressions compounded toform the Idea of Dr. Layne
Complex Ideas from Association of Ideas
Resemblance Contiguity in Time and Space
Cause or Effect
All Associations are not REASONABLE and Do not reflectREALITY as such.
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DESIRE VS. REASON
It is not reason which engagesus to suppose that the pastresembles the future, and to
expect similar effects fromcauses which are, to
appearance, similar or toassume that conjoined eventsare causally related.
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The Problem of Induction
Induction and Cause/Effect is only a HABIT/CUSTOM
Deduction Going from general principles toparticular conclusions. All people who have a cough are sick. You have a cough You are sick
Induction Going from particular (impressions) to
general (unobserved Ideas) The sun came up today, the sun came up yesterday thus the
sun will come up everyday Assuming that there is a pattern in the behavior of objects that
will be the same in the future or when unobserved.
UNIFORMITY OF NATURE
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The Problem of Induction
Inductive Reasoning from observed to unobserved
Inductive reasoning goes beyond the present testimony of thesenses, and the records of our memory.
We believe that things behave in a regular manner; i.e., that patternswill persist into the future, and throughout the unobserved present.
Principle of the Uniformity of Nature.
No justification that nature will continue to be uniform.
Two kinds of Justification (1) Demonstrative reasoning
Uniformity principle cannot be demonstrated, as it is "consistent and
conceivable" that nature might stop being regular (2) probable reasoning.
Circular
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Custom
The great guide of human life without which we would be at aloss
All belief of matter of fact or real existence is derived merelyfrom some object, present to the memory or senses, and acustomary conjunction between that and some other object. Orin other words; having found in many instances, that any twokinds of objectsflame and heat, snow and coldhave alwaysbeen conjoined together; if flame or snow be presented anew tothe senses, the mind is carried by custom to expect heat or coldand to believe that such a quality does exist, and will discoveritself upon a neared approach. This belief is the necessary resultof placing the mind in such circumstances. It is an operation ofthe soul, when we are so situated, as unavoidable as to feel thepassion of love, when we receive benefits; or hatred, when wemeet injuries. All these operations are a species of naturalinstincts, which no reasoning or process of the thought andunderstanding is able either to produce or invent.
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Heidegger (1889-1976)
The Question of the Meaning of Being Being vs. beings
Examine Dasein (being-there, being in the world)
What is Dasein1. A being whose Being is an issue for it
2. Human being aware of Being as Existence
3. Awareness of Being-toward-death (Angst)
Losing the I in the they, becoming part ofthe crowd vs. freedom
Inauthentic vs. Authentic
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Introduction to Metaphysics
The Fundamental Question Why are there beings at all instead of nothing?
First Question (not chronologically)
1. BroadestNot beings but Being
Limited only by Nothing, but it is something
2. Deepest
What is the ground for Being?3. Originary
Human being who poses the question
Why question challenges the Being of the whole
Why the why?
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Misunderstanding of Philosophy
ForgetfulnessThe question why something rather than nothing is the
grounds of Science
Religious (Cannot authentically question withoutsuspending faith
Without the exposure to unfaith, the faithful is not infaith but a convenient indifference)
Misunderstanding of Philosophy
All essential questioning is untimelyThe few philosophers/the unsettlers
Supports Culture
Doesnt make things easier but more difficult
You cant do anything with philosophy? It can only do
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Greek Philosophy
Phusis Nature (origin meaning lost)
The emergence, the opening up
Why is there something rather than nothing?
Not a physical question, limited to such beings but all ofBeing
Metaphysic Beyond beings
Are we asking the question or willing the question?
Knowing is to be able to stand in the truth
Truth is the openness to beings
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Nothing