Aristotle

Potentiality is when something contains the ingredients to become something else.

Actuality is when an object fulfils its potential and becomes something else.
Plato and Aristotle
Plato taught Aristotle at the Academy. Aristotle had great affection and respect for his
teacher, but he disagreed with him.
The School of Athens by Raphael shows Plato pointing upwards, whilst Aristotles
hand is held parallel to the ground. Platos feet appear to be about to move, whereas
Aristotles feet are firmly on the ground and completely still.
Aristotle was an empiricist, who argued that knowledge is based on experience and
the truth can be discovered through our senses. He was trying to understand the
purpose of life. One area he examined involved trying to discover exactly what the
essence of an object was.
The Four Causes

The Material Cause What is it made of? The materials represent the impermanence
of our world, as materials always have the potential for change.
The Efficient Cause How does it happen? The efficient cause can be a person, as
well as an action.
The Formal Cause What are its characteristics?
The Final Cause What is it for? Aristotle examines the purpose of objects, the
reason why they exist at all.

The Final Cause

Aristotle said the Final Cause is the most important one because it gives the best
explanation of an object. The purpose of an object is an important part of what it is.
Everything in existence can answer the four causes, even if we do not know the
answers ourselves. Hence, everything has a purpose, even if we do not understand
it.
If a small object can answer all the questions, so can something as large as the
universe.
When the purpose is fully realised, then full perfection is reached. If the object does
what it is meant to do, then the object has achieved goodness.

Prime Mover

Everything in life is changing, and something must cause this movement. Everything
must have a Final Cause, in other words a purpose for being here. Nothing comes
from nothing. So it follows that when there is a chain of events, there must be an
ultimate cause. The Prime Mover is the ultimate cause.
The Prime Mover is an unmoved mover, who is eternal, a substance and actual. It is
different, separate and external from the world. The Prime Mover is beyond space
and time. There are some similarities between the Prime Mover and God.
It does not exist in a bodily form like us, otherwise it would be subject to change just
as we are. The Prime Mover can only exist in a spiritual way, so it must be intelligence

or thought. It is immaterial, so can only understand intellectual and spiritual

activities.
It never changes, does not have any potential to change and so will never end.
Something which is eternal must necessarily be good; things which change are bad.
Change means impermanence, which is bad because there is always room for
improvement.
The Prime Mover cannot move, but things are attracted to it. We humans move
towards the Prime Mover, like cats drawn to a bowl of milk.
The Prime Mover is perfect and unmoved, and so cannot think about anything but
itself, because thinking involves moving through ideas. God can only know God and
cannot have a relationship with anything outside of itself. It is totally outside of our
world in terms of time and space. It knows nothing about it, has no plan for it and
never intervenes in it.

Strengths

Aristotle focuses on empiricism and sensory experience, which is accessible to

everybody.
He believes that everything has a purpose, giving worth to people and objects.

Weaknesses

It is hard to understand how the Prime Mover can be powerful, yet be unable to know
it. He does not know about our universe or the people who are drawn towards him.
Where did the matter that the world is made of come from? Was it caused, too?
Does there have to be a reason for the existence of the universe? Couldnt it be
chance?