The Basics of Philosophy

1. Moscow State Instituteof International Relations (MGIMO-University)School of Government and International Affairs& Alexander ShishkinDepartment of Philosophy The Basics of Philosophy Part IICosmocentric Philosophy Lecture 5Aristotle’s Ontology The Structure of Reality

2. Aristotle’s OntologyThe Structure of Reality • Criticism of Plato’s Theory of Ideas • Terminological Shortcomings • Logical Shortcomings • Philosophical Shortcomings • The Doctrine of Matter and Form:Hylomorphism • The Doctrine of Potentialityand Actuality • The Doctrine of Causation: The Four Types of Causes • The Material Cause • The Formal Cause • The Efficient Cause • The Final Cause • The Being and Its Kinds:The Ten Categories

3. Aristotle Abdera Stagira Elea Athens Ephesus Miletus

4. The Metaphysics On the Soul The Organon Physics The Nicomachean Ethics The Politics The Poetics The Rhetoric Aristotle’s OntologyThe Structure of Reality Principal Writings Aristotle(384–322 B.C.)

5. Criticism of Plato’s Theory of Ideas • Terminological Shortcomings • The unsatisfactory terminology • The confusing expression ofsharing in • The imprecise notion ofpattern and the metaphor of imitation (copy) • Logical Shortcomings • Inconsistencies in the application of the term idea • Ideas of non-natural objects (e.g. objects created by art) • Ideas of negations • Ideas of perishable things • Ideas of relations • Predication of ideas and the “third man” argument • Ideas of ideas • Philosophical Shortcomings • The duplication (multiplication) of reality • The separation of substances from things • The irrelevancy of changeless ideas to the natural world of change

6. Criticism of Plato’s Theory of IdeasTerminological Shortcomings … all other things cannot come from the Forms in any of the usual senses of “from”. And to say that they are patterns and the other things share in them is to use empty words and poetical metaphors. For what is it that works, looking to the Ideas? And anything can either be, or become, like another without being copied from it, so that whether Socrates or not a man Socrates like might come to be; and evidently this might be so even if Socrates were eternal. Aristotle.The Metaphysics.

7. Criticism of Plato’s Theory of IdeasIdeas of Non-natural Objects Further, of the ways in which we prove that the Forms exist, none is convincing; for from some no inference necessarily follows, and from some arise Forms even of things of which we think there are no Forms. For according to the arguments from the existence of the sciencesthere will be Forms of all things of which there are sciences… Aristotle.The Metaphysics.

8. Criticism of Plato’s Theory of IdeasIdeas of Negations … and according to the “one over many” argumentthere will be Forms even of negations… Aristotle.The Metaphysics.

9. Criticism of Plato’s Theory of IdeasIdeas of Perishable Things … and according to the argument that there is an object for thought even when the thing has perished,there will be Forms of perishable things; for we have an image of these. Aristotle.The Metaphysics.

10. Criticism of Plato’s Theory of IdeasIdeas of Relations Further, of the more accurate arguments, some lead to Ideas of relations,of which we say there is no independent class, and others introduce the “third man”. Aristotle.The Metaphysics.

11. Criticism of Plato’s Theory of IdeasPredication of Ideas and the “Third Man” Argument … but the same terms indicate substance in this and in the ideal world (or what will be the meaning of saying that there is something apart from the particulars – the one over many?). And if the Ideas and the particulars that share in them have the same form,there will be something common to these…But if they have not the same form,they must have only the name in common… Aristotle.The Metaphysics.

12. Criticism of Plato’s Theory of IdeasPredication of Ideas and the “Third Man” Argument Socrates a man is Plato a man is The[Second]Man a man is The[Third]Man a man is Plato Aristotle

13. Criticism of Plato’s Theory of IdeasIdeas of Ideas … the Forms are patterns not only of sensible things, but of Forms themselves also; i.e. the genus, as genus of various species, will be so; therefore the same thing will be pattern and copy. Aristotle.The Metaphysics.

14. Criticism of Plato’s Theory of IdeasThe Duplicationof Reality … as for those who posit the Ideas as causes, firstly, in seeking to grasp the causes of the things around us, they introduced others equal in number to these, as if a man who wanted to count things thought he would not be able to do it while they were few, but tried to count them when he had added to their number. For the Forms are practically equal to – or not fewer than – the things, in trying to explain which these thinkers proceeded from them to the Forms. For to each thing there answers an entity which has the same name and exists apart from the substances... Aristotle.The Metaphysics.

15. Criticism of Plato’s Theory of IdeasThe Multiplicationof Reality … there will be several patterns of the same thing, and therefore several Forms;e.g. “animal” and “two-footed” and also “man himself” will be Forms of man. Aristotle.The Metaphysics.

16. Criticism of Plato’s Theory of IdeasThe Separation of Substances from Things … it would seem impossible that the substance and that of which it is the substance should exist apart;how, therefore, could the Ideas, being the substances of things, exist apart? Aristotle.The Metaphysics.

17. Criticism of Plato’s Theory of IdeasThe Irrelevancy of Ideas to the World of Change Above all one might discuss the question what on earth the Forms contribute to sensible things,either to those that are eternal or to those that come into being and cease to be. Forthey cause neither movement nor any change in them. Aristotle.The Metaphysics.

18. The Doctrine of Matter and FormHylomorphism Hylomorphism(Gr.υλη,matter,μορφή,form) is a metaphysical doctrine according to which everything that exists consists of two intrinsic principles, one potential,namely, matter,and one actual, namely, form.

19. The Doctrine of Matter and FormHylomorphism Plato Aristotle In Plato’s ontologyindividualsanduniversals, i.e. sensuous thingsand intelligibleideas, exemplifydifferenttypes of being(essentially different entities),the relations of which to each otherremainsomewhat unclear. In Aristotle’s ontology individualsanduniversals exemplify different aspects of being,distinguished and abstracted by our thought,but not actually existing as separate different entities; Aristotle’sformsmay be said to more or less correspond to Plato’sideaslikewiserepresenting what is universal about things, but opposed not, as by Plato, to actualindividualthings,but tomatteras mere potentialityof things.

20. The Doctrine of Matter and FormHylomorphism Bronzeismatter,cylinderis the form, the bronze cylinderis a substance. Silverismatter,cylinderis the form, thesilver cylinderis a substance. Bronzeismatter,cubeis the form, thebronze cubeis a substance. Silverismatter,cubeis the form, thesilver cubeis asubstance.

21. The Doctrine of Matter and FormHylomorphism • The cylindrical form is the common (shared) feature of both the bronze and the silver cylinders, just like the cubic form is the common (shared) feature of both the bronze and the silver cubes. • However, it is “bronzeness” that seems to be the common (shared) feature of the bronze cylinder and the bronze cube, just like “silverness” seems to be the common (shared) feature of the silver cylinder. • Does this not mean that it is not only form that represents what is universal about things, but matter as well? • No, it does not, for both “bronzeness” and “silverness” are to be seen as different forms of metallic matter. • “Metallicity” is, in its turn, one of the forms of earth; “earthness”, together with “waterness”, “airness”, and “fireness”, being the four basic forms of primary matter. • This primary matteris not something real, for lacking form it lacks reality as well, and is mere abstraction or, to put it otherwise, abstract possibility, i.e. possibility of anything. • When primary matter becomes earth, water, air, or fire by acquiring one of the respective forms, it becomes real, i.e. capable of becoming or producing something else, not just anything.

22. The Doctrine of Matter and FormHylomorphism Abrick is made of clay shapedin the form of a parallelepiped;ahouseis made of bricksarranged in the form of a “house”. Clay is matter,parallelepipedisthe form,a brickis a substance. Brick ismatter,house (“houseness”) isthe form,a(particular) houseisa substance.

23. The Doctrine of Matter and FormHylomorphism Houseismatter,town (“townness”) isthe form,a(particular) townis asubstance. Brick ismatter,house (“houseness”) isthe form,a(particular) houseisa substance.

24. The Doctrine of Matter and FormHylomorphism God(the form of all forms) Genus Genus Forms Species Species Species Species SU B S T A N C ES Thing Thing Thing Thing Thing Thing Thing Thing Matter(the potentiality) Earth Water Air Fire Primary matter(purepotentiality)

25. The Doctrine of Potentialityand Actuality • Matterandformare distinguished and counterpoised by Aristotle • not just with respect to generality,i.e. asparticularversusuniversal; • butalso with respect to modality,i.e. aspossibleversusnecessary; • thus establishing lasting semantic associations: • materiala.k.a.particulara.k.a.possible, • formala.k.a.universala.k.a.necessary. • Actuality (a.k.a. the being) turns out to be and is understood as the unity of abstract opposites: • matterandform,on the one hand; • potentialityandnecessity, on the other hand.

26. The Doctrine of Potentialityand Actuality … we must not seek a definition of everything but be content to grasp the analogy, that it is as that which is building is to that which is capable of building, and the waking to the sleeping, and that which is seeing to that which has its eyes shut but has sight, and that which has been shaped out of the matter to the matter, and that which has been wrought up to the unwrought. Let actuality be defined by one member of this antithesis, and the potentialby the other. Aristotle.The Metaphysics.

27. The Doctrine of Potentialityand Actuality Potentiality(Gr. δύναμις,Lat. potentia) is(1) a powerto produce a change,(2) the capacityto change itself,to acquirea different, more completed form. Actuality(Gr. ενέργεια,Lat. actus) is(1) movement (Gr. κίνησις) or processas uncompletedactivity,(2) entelechy (Gr. εντελέχεια)as completed activity. Actualityis prior topotentiality(1) in logos (in definition),(2) in time (although in a specific way),3) in substance.

28. The Doctrine of Potentialityand Actuality Actualityis prior topotentiality in logos(in definition), in time, in substance because we cannotidentify potentialitywithout referenceto the correspondingactuality; because the actual which is identical in species though not in number with a potentially existing thing is prior to it; (1) as the final cause,(2) because anything with the mere potentiality to be is perishable, and the eternal is prior to the perishable.

29. The Doctrine of Causation • How doespotentialitybecomeactuality? • This is done by giving a specific formto otherwise amorphousmatter. • But how is this “union” of matterandform achieved? • To answer this question Aristotle expands his twofold doctrine of matterandformas the constituent principles of being to a fourfold doctrine of causation.

30. The Doctrine of Causation The Four Types of Causes Evidently we have to acquire knowledge of the original causes (for we say we know each thing only when we think we recognize its first cause), and causes are spoken of in four senses. In one of these we mean the substance, i.e. the essence (for the “why” is reducible finally to the definition, and the ultimate “why” is a cause and principle); in anotherthe matter or substratum, in a thirdthe source of the change, and in a fourth the cause opposed to this, the purpose and the good (for this is the end of all generation and change). Aristotle.The Metaphysics.

31. The Doctrine of Causation The Four Types of Causes The vase’s formal causeis the idea (form) The vase’s efficient causeis the potter The vase’s final causeis the purpose The vase’s material causeis clay

32. The Doctrine of Causation • How doespotentialitybecomeactuality? • This is done by giving a specific formto otherwise amorphousmatter. • But how is this “union” of matterandform achieved? • To answer this question Aristotle expands his twofold doctrine of matterandformas the constituent principles of being to a fourfold doctrine of causation. • It is knowledge (οἶδα) ofcauses (principles) that distinguishesscience (ἐπιστήμη) from the lower kinds of knowledge that precede it, viz. sense perception (αἴσθησις), experience (ἐμπειρία) andart (τέχνη). • The difference between philosophy (φιλοσοφία), orwisdom (σοφία), and other (particular) sciences is that philosophy studies first causes (first principles), or, to put it otherwise, causes (principles) as such. • In other words, philosophy deals not with particular kindsof being,but withbeing as such.

33. The Being and Its Kinds The subject of ontology (“first philosophy”, “metaphysics”) is that which is or thebeing(ον). Granted, all sciences studythat which is;what else is there to study? However, particular sciences study the being in some specific aspects(e.g. physics studies it as susceptible to change), only ontology studiesthe being as such,the being as being.

34. The Being and Its Kinds The being falls under one science,because all the various senses of the word are related to and derived fromthe one that is basic and common to all. Just like“healthy” does not mean exactly the same when applied to man, complexionorlife, and yet is related to and derived from one basic sense of health,this being a state characteristic of a healthy organism; so there are many senses in which a thing may be said to “be”, but all that “is” is related to one central and definite point, viz.substance.

35. Substances Quantities Qualities Relatives Places Times Positions States Doings Undergoings The individual horse, the individual man Two feet tall, six feet tall White, literate A double, a half In the Lyceum, in the market-place Yesterday, last year Sitting, standing Clad, armed Cutting, carrying Being cut, being carried The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories

36. The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories Category(Lat.categoria,from Gr. κατηγορία, predication, from Gr. κατηγορέιν, to accuse, affirm, predicate)is any of several fundamental and distinct classes to which entities or concepts belong. TheMerriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (the 10th edition).

37. The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories • Substance(Gr.ουσία,Lat.substantia) Substance,in the truest and primary and most definite sense of the word,is that which is neither predicable of a subject nor present in a subject; for instance, the individual man or horse. The individualhorse The individualman

38. The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories • Substance (secondary) But in a secondary sense those things are called substances within which, as species, the primary substances are included; also those which, as genera, include the species. For instance, the individual man is included in the species “man”, and the genus to which the species belongs is “animal”; these, therefore ... are termed secondary substances. Horse(species) Man(species) Animal(genus)

39. The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories • Substance • Quantity “Quantum”means that whichis divisible into two or moreconstituent parts of which each is by nature a “one” and a “this”. A quantum is a plurality if it is numerable, One Two

40. The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories • Substance • Quantity “Quantum” means that which is divisible into two or moreconstituent parts of which each is by nature a “one” and a “this”. A quantum is a plurality if it is numerable, a magnitude if it is a measurable. Two feet tall Six feet tall

41. The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories • Substance • Quantity • Quality White Literate

42. Substance Quantity Quality Relation The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories Those things are called relative, which, being either said to be of something else or related to something else, are explained by reference to that other thing. Left Right Smaller Bigger

43. Substance Quantity Quality Relation Place The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories In the Lyceum

44. Substance Quantity Quality Relation Place The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories In the market-place

45. Substance Quantity Quality Relation Place Time The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories In 361 A.D.

46. Substance Quantity Quality Relation Place Time The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories In 383 A.D.

47. The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories • Substance • Quantity • Quality • Relation • Place • Time • Position Sitting Standing

48. Substance Quantity Quality Relation Place Time Position State The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories Clad Armed

49. Substance Quantity Quality Relation Place Time Position State Action The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories Carrying

50. Substance Quantity Quality Relation Place Time Position State Action Affection The Being and Its Kinds The Ten Categories Being carried