Philosophy

Philosophy Study Guide

change, transforming a potential into an actuality. ● Final cause: The ultimate purpose for which a thing exists its reason for being, its final goal. Aristotle extends the concept of final cause to the universe as a whole that he refers to as first final cause, prime mover, pure thought, and thinking thought by stating, “This is not a God as a creator but rather an impersonal principle that permeates the universe as a whole.” To avoid infinite regress, which is a kind of philosophical argument, intending to show that a thesis is defective because it generates an infinite series when either no such series exists, or were it to exist, the thesis would lack the role (or justification) it is supposed to play Aristotle needed to put forward the first final cause concept. Aristotle was devoted to the idea that the nature of reality is best apprehended through close and careful attention to, and the study of sense experiences, making him an empiricist. Whereas Plato believed in a changing and ultimately mortal human body that was inhabited by an unchanging and immortal soul, Aristotle argued that the soul cannot be separated from the body that we, as humans, are entirely creatures of nature. In Aristotle’s metaphysical system, there are two categories of things: matter (the physicality of a thing) and form (the essence of a thing). All things contain within themselves their potential or entelechy (creative drive or inner urge). 6.5 Descartes: Can Reality be known? Descartes was a rationalist who believed that true knowledge is produced by thinking, which is reflective, logical, analytical, and independent of our sense experiences in the world, a view naturally reinforced by his training as a mathematician. Meditations on First Philosophy are his writings in the form of a personal journal beginning with Meditations I with the question: Suppose every important thing I’ve been taught in my life to this point has been inaccurate and unreliable? Descartes’ response to the above question was dramatically unique; he decided to make every effort to dispose of everything he had been taught and start fresh, searching for a foundation point for knowledge that would be absolutely indubitable. In this approach, Descartes is using doubt constructively to identify, strengthen, and refine the best beliefs. It is this trial by fire that helps us to develop beliefs that are tempered and firmly grounded. Descartes points out it is not necessary to question every individual belief, simply our core beliefs such as how is it possible to be certain of what I think I know?, what is the reason for believing or not believing in God?, on what basis should I make ethical decisions?, and how do I know that there is a world that exists outside of my experience? After establishing the basic ground rules as stated above, Descartes moves on to explore the reliability and unreliability of our sense experience. What we consider through our senses is often incomplete, subjective, and inaccurate, making it unreliable and unsuitable for Descartes’ firm and permanent foundation for knowledge. Descartes established a constructively skeptical approach toward the nature of knowledge, vowing to begin with a clean slate or position of radical doubt and from there, to objectively evaluate everything he knew or believed to be true. Descartes’ radical doubt led him to conceive of the possibility of an evil genius and entity that manipulates us into believing that our waking dream is reality only found his way out of this nightmarish possibility through his famous pronouncement of “Cogito, ergo sum” (I think, therefore I am). This statement provided him with the foundation of absolute certainty on which he could construct a system of true beliefs through the

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