1. By: Jonathan
Davila
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2.  Son of a court physician
 Born in Stagira, Chalcidice 384 BC
 Died in Euboea 322 BC
 Aristotle was Plato’s student and teacher of
Alexander The Great.
 Aristotle is one of the most important
founding figures in Western philosophy.
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3.  He claimed that complete understanding of a thing
required identifying its “four causes”
 He believed that nature is ordered and guided
internally.
 He taught that there are three kinds of soul and
that they constitute a hierarchy.
 He believed in using factual information and
collecting facts to make a better world
 He was a Philosophical Naturalist
 Aristotle's form can be abstracted from matter,
but cant exist independently like matter.
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4.  The belief that reality consist of the natural
world
 Naturalist universe is ordered in that
everything in it follows consistent and
discoverable laws of nature
 Nature always acts with a purpose and the key
to understand anything lies in determining its
essential purpose
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5.  Believes that human beings are part of the
natural order and behave according to fix
laws and principles
 Understanding of nature is necessary to
understanding human nature.
 Aristotle based his philosophical positions on
scrutiny, not on the isolated contemplation of
mathematical laws or “pure laws”
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6.  Form is the universe divided into the realm of
becoming and the realm of being
 Distinguished from content only in thought
never the fact
 For Aristotle, form exists within the natural order
embedded in particular things and can not exist
independently.
 Aristotelian form is that which is in matter
and makes a thing what it is, but can’t exist
independently.
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7.  Matter is the common material stuff found in a
variety of material things; matter has no distinct
characteristics until some form is imparted to it
or until the form inherit in a thing becomes
actualized.
 Change is a series of smaller changes in which
matter loses and gains form.
 The strongest principle of growth lies in human
choice.
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8.  Material Cause is the material (substance)
from which a thing comes and which change
occurs.
 Formal Cause is the shape or form into which
matter is changed.
 Efficient Cause is the triggering cause that
initiates activity; the substance by which a
change is brought about.
 Final Cause is for which activity or process take
place
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9.  Entelechy is “Having its end within itself”
 Includes nutritive and sensitive soul plus
capacity for analysis, understanding various
forms and making reasoned decisions.
 Inner urge that drives all things to blossom into
their own selves. In order or design that governs
all natural processes.
 For Aristotle, psyche is the form of the body.
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10.  Teleological Thinking is a way of explaining
or understanding a thing in terms of its ultimate
goal, or final cause
 Eudemonia often translates as “Happiness”
 Aristotle refers to fully realized existence; state
of being fully aware, vital alert
 Sophrosyne is wisdom as moderation; finding
the mean between excess and deficiency.
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11.  Character is the sum total of a person’s traits including
behavior, habits, likes, and etc.
 The mean is the midpoint between two other points; For
Aristotle, moral virtue was characterized as a mean between
too little and too much.
 According to Aristotle, we become our best selves in the
process of becoming fully functioning human being.
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12. Hope you enjoyed my
presentation!
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