May 30 Philosophy

May 30 Φ ➡Aristotle had other convictions about statements ➡An argument must contain: more than one statement, a relation between statements, so that some statements provide proof for one other statement and one statement is proven by the others -the statement that is proven is called a conclusion in an argument- and the statements that provide proof are called premises, and the third requirement to have an argument is that that relationship does prove what it claims to prove ➡The syllogism is a particular kind of argument that has three things ➡All men are mortal ➡Socrates is a man ➡Thus, socrates is mortal ➡In a syllogism we have terms, statements are made out of combining terms ➡In Aristotelian metaphysics the substance category has a fundamental role , in terms of the connection between logic and metaphysics, substance must be a subject it can never be a predicate ➡We can say of example that socrates is snub-nosed ➡Keep in mind that this is a logical order, not a spatial one ➡Everything else is predicated on the substance categories, all other things are asserted of them or are present in them ➡Substances are not shadows of things that are more real like plato said ➡Well aristotle had to make a distinction between two meanings of substance ➡“but people speak, too of secondary substance, to which as a species …and to which a genera species belong” ➡E.G. Individual humans velong to a species/class (human) and each human is a kind of animal ➡Aristotle is making a difference between a genus and species; in the clase of people the genus is animal and the species is human (or rational animals s aristotle put it) and these are called secondary substances ➡Wisdom for aristotle was to know things and to know why things are the way they are ➡The second part of the :why: questions is actually four questions ➡A bronze status, for example to explain its nature. 1) What is it made of (material cause) [bronze] 2) Why does it have a particular shape (the formal cause) [statue] 3) What was the thing that changed it from bronze into a statue (efficient cause) [the

May 30 Φ sculptor. 4)And what was the purpose of forming it into a statue (The final cause) [ sell the statue]. ➡Matter and form for aristotle mean that the two could only be separated intellectually, but not physically an that the two do not exist independent of one another ➡Potency & Act: EG., frog egg is potentially a frog, when that frog egg changes an becomes a frog, then it is no longer potentially a frog it is a frog (thing substance) matter & form and together wit that we see potency and act. ➡The form of the frog is potentially in the substance of the egg ➡Change is essentially when something is in potency and act at the same time, it is in the middle of being potential and actual, when it is here it is change ➡Potency is the certain kind of form in a certain substance