Aristotle

Truth is: This that are real must hold some truth. The empirical world is real. MC: The empirical world must hold some truth.

Aristotle refused to believe that true knowledge does not believe in the empirical (sense) world.

Aristotle focused on knowledge

the only real knowledge we can have is that which is gained in the empirical world. Our experience helps us understand the world. The abstract world of the Forms gives us nothing to learn about. FACTS ARE IN THE HERE AND NOW (A Posteriori Knowledge that comes after sense experience)

Knowledge is.
The realisation that the empirical world runs on the laws of cause and effect. True knowledge is understanding/exploring/ predicting the series of cause and effect. Cause and effect: every event is dependent on (caused by) a preceding event. All events will in turn perpetuate (put into effect) another event. Aristotle argued, based on his empirical observation, that nothing can cause itself or come from nothing.

Actuality and Potentiality

Aristotle observed that everything that exists was in a permanent state of movement or motion (not moving around or walking) = Greek word motus for change: The physical world was constantly in a state of motion and change The planets seems to be moving eternally Change or motion is always caused by something Objects in the physical world were in a state of actuality and potentiality
Actuality is when an object fulfils its potential and becomes something else Potentiality is when something contains the ingredients to become something else

What is actual and potential?

Form: A form of an object is its structure and characteristics (characteristics allowing it to be classified as one thing and not another its iness). The soul Substance: the material of what all things are made (the physical stuff for example tables are made of wood)

Purpose= essence
Purpose: Aristotle believed that the essence of an object was not its form or substance but its purpose. He suggested that the best way of explaining an object was through describing its purpose (telos) rather than describing its substance or form. When something achieves its purpose it has achieved goodness. Purpose is intrinsic not instrumental. Aristotle believed all things have a purpose. Value: instrumental: things are of value based on what we can use them for. Intrinsic: things are of value based on themselves and nothing else. I.E What they are born with or made for.

Creative Task
You have been given one key theme to discuss the similarities and differences between Plato and Aristotle. You now have to write a Childrens story that explains this theme in a simple but symbolic way. You need to have at least five pages/slides and pictures. And you will need to do a critical analysis explaining your work.