Aristotle’s Metaphysics

Aristotle’s Challenges to Plato

• Although Aristotle studied at Plato’s Academy for twenty years, he disagreed with Plato on many theories

• Aristotle thought the theory of Forms was illogical because form cannot be separated from matter, instead he asserted that our natural world was our real world containing both form and matter

• Aristotle criticized Plato’s theory of forms in that it did not explain movement or change

Matter and Form

• All substance is made up of Matter AND Form– ex. the concrete (matter) used to make a building is

useless until it is combined with the architect’s blueprint (form). Yes, he took that part from Plato!

• Enabled Aristotle to understand the problem of permanence and change

• All things pass through changes, but patterns of continuity could be observed– Ex. A chair is broken into pieces to burn. The form of the

substance then changed from chair to kindling, but a continuity with the former chair exists because the kindling has as its matter, chair

Potentiality and Actuality• To explain the process of change, Aristotle uses the

concepts of Potentiality and Actuality• Within everything, people included, there exists a

natural evolution toward fulfilling its own potential. In Plato’s terms, becoming its own Form

• Potentiality is the movement in nature and in humans from imperfection to perfection (aka. Actuality)– This is a hardwired component in all things that is an

involuntary process • Cosmic scale- Big Bang to Big Chill• Individual scale- Birth to Death

– Aristotle called this entelechy- the self-contained end of anything

Potentiality and Actuality

Acorn Sapling Young Tree Mature Tree Decaying Tree

Potentiality Continuum Actuality (loses actuality/ renew potentiality)

Four Causes

• To understand how a thing came to be what it was, Aristotle put forward four kinds of causes or explanations– Material Cause– Formal Cause– Efficient Cause– Final Cause