Exam board: OCR Religious Studies (Year 1). A01 focused notes and several evaluative essay plans for the Ancient Philosophical Influences part of the Philosophy of Religion paper. I have consistently achieved A*s in Religious Studies by using these as revision. Please reach out if you have a questi...
Aristotle Essay Plans
1. ‘Aristotle successfully proves the existence of the Prime
Mover.’ Discuss.
2. Assess Aristotle’s argument for the Four Causes.
3. “Aristotle’s reliance on empiricism has many weaknesses”.
Discuss
4. Evaluate whether Plato’s rationalism is superior to Aristotle’s
empiricism in making sense of reality.
Aristotle successfully proves the existence of the Prime Mover
POINT The PM is the first and final cause that which change originates from
and strives towards as it externally sustains the patterns between
Potentiality to Actuality. “Nothing comes from nothing”
A02 Pure Necessity: Must exist by definition and could not be made nor
constituted of anything (Divine Simplicity)
SYNOPTIC LINK Aquinas’ Fifth Way: The REGULARITY in nature and contingent
beings (observed patterns) must have been Organised
Religious Language: Hume the PM’s attributes can be verified with
reference to the abundance of evidence of attraction towards some
purpose
CA How does it sustain cause and effect (motus) without moving?
A02/ If it is Simple, it must have no desire to enact change either
EVALUATION Possible inductive leap? God shaped hole.
CR Must be unmoved and Pure Actuality, otherwise it is subject to our
laws of potentiality to actuality
Substance category three is not subject to the four causes and exists
eternally.
A02/ This in turn suggests imperfection
EVALUATION Utilised in Rationalist arguments too: God is NECESSARY as there is
no possibility of him not existing and he needs to exist. (Anselm,
Proslogian)
CAA How do we know there is only one?
CRR "The rule of many is not good; one ruler let there be." Metaphysics
Every chain of motion needs to originate to something unmoved and
perfect; if there was more than one that would contradict its perfect
nature
Therefore… There is a prime mover based on its attributes and evidence
of them in the universe.
Assess the Four Causes: Material
POINT Anyone can discern what material something is, and a useful basis
for all empirical and scientific knowledge
A02 A goal was scored because the ball is made of a material that
transfers energy to movement efficiently
Physics: “generation is for the sake of substance” (material objects
, are in a state of actuality, so really, we should think of material
cause as energy itself)
CA There is no material cause of colour or a concept such as beauty;
surely these things are immaterial, or even a step further just a
“pale imitation” of the Form of the Good
A02/ Plato provides a better explanation: we can recognise the Form of
EVALUATION beauty within things
CR Beauty and colours “cause themselves” to be seen and perceived,
which corresponds to the motus between potentiality and actuality
(p: they are mixed or caused in nature a: we see them and go “hey
that is blue”)
A02/ Abstract concepts, and in fact people, cannot properly judge
EVALUATION what the definition of what something like that is- need an
external judge for telos or an informed guess.
You cannot tell what something is based on its material
or efficient cause alone, but with a sensible telos it
makes lots of sense.
Exp: Teeth judged on material is strange when put next to the
telos of “being good for the animal”
Therefore…
Assess the Four Causes: Efficient
POINT Corresponds to how we understand (and empirically verify) how
change occurs and acts upon an object
A02 The player kicks the ball to score a goal, the couple make a baby
Aristotle basically saw this as the exchange of properties
from the actuality of one object (the cause) to the potential
of another (the effect).
CA His notion of efficient cause does not tell us what has happened only
that something has happened (he dropped the pen, but how was the
pen dropped, really? - you cannot say because it is not observable!)
SYNOPTIC LINK Hume: we are able to observe two processes, but it could be that
“when x,y”
Oversimplifies causality, when physics (the best epistemological
result) states there are things with no causality (only correlations
between events), simultaneous causation, backward causation,
causation at a distance (Bell’s Theorem)
Newton, 3rd Law: Something always has to be caused something
acting upon it
CR The Prime Mover sets all action into motion, which isn’t a scientific
answer but an impressive philosophical rebuttal. The efficient cause
is an active agent in externally enabling this overarching chain to set
into motion.
A02/ The agent that acts upon an object is somewhat more important in
EVALUATION modern understanding of philosophy and science than the other
causes
CAA What if there is more than one agent acting upon the material?
"There is an efficient cause for everything; nothing can be the
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