Reflection 14

Aristotle came after Socrates and Plato. He was also a philospher that left a great imapct on the western civilization. Aristotle was interested in more than just the biological world. He tried to build a theory on the world as a whole. He believed that nature could be seen as a continum of organization from lifeless matter to the most difficult forms of life such as earth, water, fire, and air. He saw humans as different from other animals because of our capacity of reason and thought. Aristole called our reason of thought " The Great Chain og Being." With this he tried classification or taxonomy. He just wanted to make sense of the relationships among all things that are living. To him, all species could be placed in some sort of order. He put all living things from lowere which were the worms in the Eatrth and the highest as God on top. He saw the world as perfect. It was perfect to him because there were no links in his chain. In addition, there was no link with more than one type of species. This idea imapcted the western civilization for centuries. Even today, it holds a major influence on how we think today. The Great Chain idea put's restraints on how we think of species today. If every link is taken up or being used then no species can move or two species coudn't be put together. That means that in his perfect universe species could never alternate or change. Aristotle also had an idea called the unmoved mover. It was more like a principle that the universe than a God as Jews and Christians and Muslims think of God. It doesn't intervene and it is not to be prayed. This is more like a principle of some sort of physics. He also had the idea of the four causes. The classificatory causes are the first and second causes. The first cause question that you ask is "What kind of being is it?" The answer to this is the formal cause. The form is seen as an example of the particular being or class beings. The form is actually inside of them. The second cause question is "Whats is the thing or being made of? What sort of stuff is it composed of?" The answer is the material cause. The last two causes which are the third and the fourth causes are reffered to as the dynamic cauises. The third cause question to ask is " For natural kinds, what are the functions of their mature state? For artifacts, what is their specific function?" The answer to the question is the final cause. You can always think of a reason but don't become too theological here. You should think much more biological about it. The fourth cause question to be asked is " How did the thing or being come to be?" The answer to this question is the efficient cause. The parents are usually the efficient cause. People who create the art are the efficient causes for artificacts.