Aristotles The Physics For Plato, we are images of the forms: whats primary is the thing itself.

For Aristotle, individual sensual substances are primary; each of us; substances are always the subjects; youre not set of tallness; tall is set of you. Attribute properties of you. You are tall. Attributing tallness to you. The hallmark of a primary substance is it always serves as the subject of the predicate. Substance is always the subject. Katagorema: predications, i.e. substance and the things that can be said of substance. Ousia: substance, ancient Greek; a being; each of us are a primary (sensible) substance [sensible individuals]. What is secondary for Plato is primary for Aristotle. Human-beingness and horse-ness are secondary substances (species). For Plato, the species was the form. They are secondary because they are said of primary substances. Inverting platonic ontology. Aristotles The Physics is his philosophy of nature/the natural world. He breaks up and divides being. Being qua or as natural substance or natural change. On the Soul being as psychological study. The Father of the Sciences; The Physics is about being qua natural substance. For Aristotle, certain things are self-evident and dont require an argument to show that they are. Responding to sophists. Ex: the world exists. If everything required an argument, we would fall into infinite regressworld would become unintelligible. He is a foundationalist: certain things do not require argument, self-evident. Platos The Republic is about metaphysics, the structure and nature of the soul (epistemology), moral philosophy, and political philosophy. The just life is ultimately the better life because by engaging in that you are closer to the good b/c your soul is unified. Two types of primary substances: The natural substances each of us are getting older/changing each day; the impulse to change is internal/innate; no one has to wind you up so that you grow up; being a doctor is not essential (accidental) to what it is to be a human-being. Artificial substances the building Im in, my chair, etc. They are the products of a techn (craft); chair is the product of carpentry; the building of architecture; just because the chair just so happens to be made out of wood (coincidental), it has the impulse to change (external). Distinguish: Essence essential properties Vs. Accidental properties Essential to Aristotles thinking: Aristotle is an essentialist: every substance has an essence. Term for cause (ancient Greek): aitia, cause or explanation; For Aristotle, cause was wider in scope. For Aristotle, there are 4 causes; of these causes, our modern view of causality is only one. Part of substances; never missing from them. Each cause is an explanation. Each cause is essential to what it is to be a substance; sets out the structure of reality; but explanation also sets out the epistemic structure.

Peoples formal cause is essence. Essence is Matter is without shape or form or purpose. It is just stuff. pure potential, no actuality. Essence is what provides the shape or form or purpose to matter. Essence is perfect, complete, but it has no substance, no solidity. Essence and matter need each other! Essence realizes (makes real) matter. There are four causes that contribute to the movement of actualization: 1. The material cause: what something is made of. Why a bronze statue? The metal it is made of. 2. The efficient cause: the motion or energy that changes matter. Why the statue? The forces necessary to work the bronze, the hammer, the heat, the energy.... modern cause. 3. The formal cause: the things shape, form, or essence; its definition; what a thing is intended and planned to be. Why the statue? Because of the plan the sculptor had for the bronze, its shape or form, the non-random ordering of its matter. 4. The final cause: its reason, its purpose, the intention behind it. The end, the purpose, the teleology of the thing. Why the statue? The purpose of it, the intention behind making it. For example, in the making of a house, the material cause is the materials the house is made of, the formal cause is the arch itects plan, the efficient cause is the process of building it, and the final cause is to provide shelter and comfort. Dont conflate formal cause with essence. Your formal cause sets out your essential essence. Telos: end or perfection Final cause is the realization of the formal cause. Luck vs. Chance: Luck is a species of chance. Luck involves rational agents, chance doesnt. Is everything in nature strictly predetermined? Or is everything a matter of chance/random? Aristotle says neither: middle path: chance and luck do exist in nature, but they dont render nature unintelligible. Chance ex: a deer goes to eat grass underneath tree; a branch falls and kills deer just a chance event that each phenomenon is two independent causal changes that coincide. The four causes set out conceptual structure of each causal change. Luck Ex: you go into the store to buy X and someone else goes to buy Y, and you happen to bump into someone who owes you money/you owe them money. When two independent causal changes coincidently overlap and make contact; at point of contact, thats when luck/unluck/chance occurs. Both do not constitute chance and luck as causes 5 and 6. They are pseudo causes because they presuppose the others to be in place and are parasitic of those causes. Without four causes, chance and luck would not occur at all. They are the coincidental overlap of causal chains. Formal cause is the house, a place in which human beings live, final cause is the actual living in the house. The full realization of the formal cause is the final cause. For Aristotle nature is an intelligible structure and the four causes set out natures intelligible structure. Nature is understandable to the mind. Formal and material causes grouping. You go to the store to get X. Your friend goes to the store to get Y. The efficient cause is you getting off your ass and going to the store. The formal cause is what it is to go to the store. The material cause is the fact that you have a body, theres a road, theres a physical store.

The final cause is the realization of what is the definition of to go to the store: fulfilling of what it is to go to the store (I.e. going to the store). None of these four causes entail bumping into the other person. Coincidental overlap.