Essay
Critically discuss Aristotle's understanding of reality
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This was written in my first year of sixth form, achieving a grade A+ and discussing Aristotle's theory and his understanding of reality
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Critically discuss Aristotle’s understanding of reality. (30 marks)Aristotle’s understanding of reality is centred around his theory of the Four Causes as well as his Prime Mover.
It seems that, even though he presents some convincing arguments, overall, these such theories have several
flaws and ultimately Aristotle's Prime Mover contains some contradiction. Thus, this essay will be supporting
the fact that Aristotle’s understanding of reality is unsuccessful as well as including the scholars Aristotle,
Russell, Dawkins, Quentin Smith and Anthony Kenny.
Aristotle has the idea that there are Four Causes, which account for a thing’s existence. The first of these causes
is the material cause, essentially what something is made out of. The efficient cause is the means or agency by
which a thing comes into existence. The third cause is the formal cause, the pattern, moral or structure of which
an object is made of. Lastly, the final cause is the telos of the object, and was the most important aspect of
Aristotle’s thinking because it shows his thought is consistently teleological, as everything is always moving or
changing and has a telos. There are several strengths to this theory devised by Aristotle based on the
understanding of reality. One clear strength of Aristotle’s four causes is that it appeals to our experience of cause
and effect in the universe. However, whilst it may be argued that they provide a good explanation to cause and
effect for an inanimate object, the four causes do not satisfactorily cover intelligent life. For example, no cause
explains a person’s identity; the causes may be used to demonstrate how the person came into existence, but do
not cover the depth to explain a person's unique characteristics that make up their self. Thus, Aristotle's four
causes do not entail the required depth needed for a successful explanation into the understanding of reality.
However, another key strength of his theory is that it overcomes the problem of infinite regress, which Aristotle
argued was a fundamental flaw to Plato’s World of the Forms. Therefore, in terms of the four causes being a
basis for Aristotle’s understanding of reality, at first glance it is clear that whilst there may be some weaknesses,
it is a coherent concept.
However, there are further weaknesses of Aristotle's four causes that need to be addressed. The first of these, is
the issue with Aristotle’s argument of causation. A scholar who questions the philosophers theory is Quentin
Smith, who effectively argues against Aristotle’s argument that nothing can be a cause of itself. Smith uses
Quantum Theory in order to validate his claim where particles seemingly come in and out of existence without a
detectable cause. This thus shows that a cause for everything is not always necessary, and thus the first cause is
ultimately flawed. A scholar who posited a parallel argument to this is Bertrand Russell, who targets Aristotle’s
final cause. His argument questions the necessity for the final cause, or even if there is a telos to the universe.
Does there have to be a cause, why can’t it just be there? Furthermore, Anthony Kenney aruges, like Smith, that
some things do not need something in actuality to move them physically. This can be corroborated by when he
states ‘The matter of the universe came from nothing and by nothing’. Therefore all of these scholars' criticisms
thus highlight the true flaws in Aristotle’s four causes, and thus his understanding of reality. A final weakness to
address with Aristotle’s four causes, is the concept of ‘negative purpose’. Take the example of cancer, something
which serves no positive purpose in this world, what is the purpose of such an evil thing. If using Aristotle’s
four causes, it could be argued that the purpose of cancerous cells is to replicate as quickly as possible. Overall,
in terms of Aristotle’s four causes, by taking further insight into the strengths and weaknesses, it is clear that
Aristotle is unsuccessful in his understanding of reality.
The prime mover is a concept advanced by Aristotle as the first uncaused cause or ‘mover’ of all motion in the
universe. As is implicit in the name, the unmoved mover moves other things, but not itself moved by any prior
action. For Aristotle, the prime mover was God. The prime mover is in a state of pure actuality - it has no
potential for change itself. As the prime mover has no potentiality, it cannot have put the universe in motion
with a physical action, as this would have caused change to the prime mover. Therefore, the prime mover is not
the efficient cause of the universe, but the final cause. However, there are some weaknesses of the concept of the
prime mover devised by Aristotle. Aristotle is guilty of the Fallacy of Composition. This is the error of
assuming that because something is true of the parts, it is true of the whole. Therefore because parts of the
universe have a purpose, Aristotle assumes the universe as a whole must have a telos also. In addition, a key
issue is that the relationship between the prime mover and the universe is unclear. How can something, which is
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