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Summary Knowledge Organiser for OCR A-Level Religious Studies Philosophy
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Full Knowledge for OCR A-Level RS Philosophy
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THE ANALOGY OF THE CAVE:• Rationalist: thinks that the primary source of knowledge is reason – we gain knowledge primarily through our reason
• Dualism: the belief that reality can be divided into 2 distinct parts, physical and non-physical • Plato uses this analogy to illustrate his theory of F
→ reality can be divided into two: the physical world of phenomena and the ideal world of the Forms • the cave is often said to be allegorical, which mea
in which people find themselves
• he uses it to illustrate how knowledge gained thro
PLATO’S UNDERSTANDING OF REALITY:
knowledge gained through knowledge of the Form
• reality consists of the physical world of phenomena, and the world of concepts (the world of Forms/Ideals) • Plato’s analogy of the cave demonstrates the impo
• the physical world is known through sense experience (‘empirical observation’) but senses can be misleading the material world and the real world
→ the world of the forms is known through reason which gives more certainty • in the analogy, the prisoner who is freed is repres
• the physical world is always changing but the world of the Forms is unchanging, so knowledge about the world of • he breaks away and makes the journey out of the
Forms will have a lasting certainty that knowledge about the physical world can never have • in the outside world he discovers the sun and real
• the physical world is given its reality by the Forms; physical phenomena ‘participate in’ their Ideal Forms → compares physical world with a dark shadow
→ he asks us to imagine prisoners in the cave w
PLATO’S THEORY OF THE FORMS: → they have a sense experience which are only
they do not know any better and never quest
The Forms: ideal and universal concepts that we can use to help us understand the world → prisoner leaves the cave and is enlightened b
→ the physical ‘cave’ world demonstrates how
• Plato saw a very important distinction: the world of appearances and the real world
→ he proposed the world we live in is a world of appearance, but the real world is the world of Forms • people who never question the information they g
• we mistake the information we gain through sens
• phenomena in physical world ‘participate in’ their Forms (e.g. domestic cat and a lion ‘participate in’ Form of Cat)
leads us to the Forms
• the Forms are superior to physical phenomena because they are unchanging
• the Forms can be the objects of certain knowledge because they are unchanging STRENGTHS
• the Forms are known through reason
• offers rational argument for existence of another wo
• argued the reason we recognise the Forms is because when we’re born we have a dim recollection of them → provides people with hope that the material wo
→ he said that there’s an inner part of us, that most people call the soul, which is immortal + unchanging isn’t all that exists, and we can then look toward
→ before the soul became tied down to the body, it was connected to the real world of Forms world of forms as a more perfect form of existen
• the reason that we can recognise beautiful things or kind acts is because we have all seen the Forms before • offers rational argument for existence of another wo
→ a person can instinctively know that something is beautiful, even if we haven’t been taught it → provides people with hope that the material wo
• therefore Plato concluded it must be true that we have an immortal soul which was once part of the world of Forms isn’t all that exists, and we can then look toward
• Plato thought that the Form of the Good was the highest of all the Forms, and that it illuminates them world of forms as a more perfect form of existen
• Plato could be commended for encouraging people
THE FORM OF THE GOOD: look beyond surface appearances to gain understan
, • taught by Plato – however approached topics in a different way THE PRIME MOVER/UNMOVED MOVER:
• emphasises the value of studying the physical world Prime Mover = causes motion and change without bei
• his approach is empirical, and he is not as concerned with the world of the Forms
• rejected Plato’s theory of Forms, partly because the relationship between Forms and objects in the material world • recognised everything is changing, and everything e
was never explained
• observed four things:
ARISTOTLE’S UNDERSTANDING OF REALITY: 1) the physical world was constantly in a state of
2) the planets seemed to be moving eternally
• we learn about reality through observation of the physical world 3) change or motion is always caused by someth
• if anything other than the physical world exists, we have no way of knowing about it 4) objects in the physical world were in a state of
• reality can be explained in four different ways – the four causes, which can account for and explain the phenomena → these four things led Aristotle to the concl
of the physical world around us change, without being moved and is etern
THE FOUR CAUSES: • Aristotle reasoned that everything must have a Fina
→ nothing comes from nothing, so when there is
• was interested in why things exist in the way they do • there must be a Prime Mover to account for the fa
• rejected idea things which exist imitate ideal Form, and instead physical world to reason why anything exists at all → he did not think that an endless chain of cause
• Aetion = an explanatory factor, a reason, or case for something → the Prime Mover is the first of all substances a
• identified four causes that explain why a thing or object exists as it does → because the Prime Mover exists necessarily, it
→ causes change or motion in everything else by
1) The Material Cause: refers to what something is made of → the prime mover must have no potential for c
→ Aristotle said that materials always have the potential for change → it must be perfectly good because it is unchan
→ the material represents the impermanence of our world → it must be immaterial because it is not capabl
→ e.g. if you left a wooden chair outside for years in all types of weather, when you came back to it the ---------I → it is transcendent and the ultimate reason (te
material of the chair would have changed – the material ‘cause’ of this chair is wood and glue
STRENGTHS
2) The Formal Cause: refers to what gives the matter its form or structure
→ explains what shape something takes, or what its identifying features are • Aristotle adopts ‘a posteriori’ approach to evidence
→ what we are doing is mentally fitting the object into a category we already know opposed to Plato’s ‘a priori’ approach
→ e.g. we can recognise a chair because it has 4 legs, a flat surface, and belongs to a group we know as ---------- → ‘a posteriori’ focuses on empirical evidence whic
‘furniture’ – the formal ‘cause’ of this chair is a square seat and a straight back based on observation and experience
→ Plato argues that we cannot trust our senses,
3) The Efficient Cause: refers to the cause of an object existing however, much of what we learn, and experienc
→ explains the activity that makes something happen comes through our senses so we should trust th
→ brings about change and ‘actualises potential’, turning something from what it could be into what it is
→ e.g. the efficient ‘cause’ of the chair is the carpenter’s activity that realised the potential of the wood to ------ • Aristotle’s theory of the four causes seems effective
, • Teleological = looking to the end results (telos) in order to draw a conclusion about what is right or wrong THE COSMOLOGICAL AR
• Cosmological = to do with the universe
o cosmological arguments come from natural theology
• Natural Theology = drawing conclusions about nature and God’s activity using reason and observing the world
o uses whole cosmos as its starting point, or universe, and look
• Contingent = depending on other things
• A Posteriori Arguments = arguments which draw conclusions based on observation through experience o the basis of the cosmological argument is that the universe ca
• Necessary Existence = existence which does not depend on anything else o why do things exist at all – why is there something, rather tha
• A Priori Arguments = arguments which draw conclusions through the use of reason o there must be a reason for the existence of the universe
• Logical Fallacy = reasoning that has a flaw in its structure → this reason has to be something which is not part of the
the reason for its own existence
THE TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD o two of the best known cosmological arguments came from A
→ both drew on ancient Greeks as inspiration for explanati
o teleological arguments for the existence of God are often known as ‘design arguments’
o teleological arguments are those which look at the end results (the world we can see around us) and use it to draw conclusions, rather like AQUINAS AND THE COSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT IN THE FIVE WAY
someone may look at a painting and use it to draw conclusions about the artist
o when we look at the world, we see examples of order, beauty, purpose, and complexity
• of Aquinas’ Five Ways, the first three are different variants of
o the argument claims these things cannot just arrive as the result of chance
• Aquinas based his argument on two assumptions: 1. the univ
→ therefore, there must be some being, outside the universe, which designed the world to be this way
• all but the most sceptical would agree with (1), however not
AQUINAS’ DESIGN ARGUMENT: → some people, such as Bertrand Russell and Richard Dawk
that there should be some reason for it
• knowledge of God could be reached in two very different ways → however, Aquinas the view that there must be some exp
• one is through revelation, where God chooses to reveal the truth to people, e.g. through words of the Bible
• the other is through our own human reason, which Aquinas thought was given to us by God for this purpose
• Aquinas thought if we applied reason to the evidence that we see around us, we can reach valuable truths FIRST WAY: THE UNMOVED MOVER
• therefore, he was a supporter of both revealed theology and natural theology
• Aquinas concentrated on the existence of change, or motion,
FIVE WAYS: presented ‘Five Ways’ to show that God exists • argument was everything in motion, or changing, has to be p
→ in this way, things stay the same unless some force acts u
• he was convinced although existence of God was not self-evident, it could be demonstrated with logical thought
→ as things are, to our observation, changing and moving,
• the last of the Five Ways is the one which takes up a version of the design argument for the existence of God
• in the Fifth Way, Aquinas said that nature seems to have an order and a purpose to it • thought this sequence of one thing moving another could not
• nothing inanimate is purposeful without the aid of a ‘guiding hand’ – no non-living thing can have its own purpose • the emphasis of Aquinas’ argument was on dependency
→ the river cannot decide to flow out to the sea because a river has no mind, and yet it does → rather than going back in time until a beginning was foun
→ the sun cannot decide to rise in the morning and to make each day the right length, and yet it does have a universe of change, vitality, and motion without t
→ continued changes and movements are because of conti
• Arrow Example:
→ if we saw an arrow flying towards a target, we would know that someone must have aimed and fired it
→ when we look at the world around us and purposiveness of inanimate objects, we can conclude the guiding hand of God must be behind it SECOND WAY: THE UNCAUSED CAUSER
→ therefore, everything in nature which is moving but has no intelligence must be directed to its goal by God • this argument is very similar, except that it replaces the idea o
• Aquinas argued that every ‘effect’ has a ‘cause’
WILLIAM PALEY’S DESIGN ARGUMENT: • infinite regress is impossible, therefore, there must be a First
• put forward what is probably the most famous version of the design argument, in his book Natural Theology • Aquinas concentrates on the idea of ‘efficient cause’, borrowi
→ when Aristotle considered the nature of causation, he ca
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