PNB 3HP3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Middle Ages
18 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Really is the basis for how we do science
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His work/teaching survived in the West much better than ancient ideas did.
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Picked up by the Christian Church in the middle ages & was adopted into
religious doctrine.
This is the reason Aristotle hangs with us.
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They aren't at odds with the prevailing religious beliefs.
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Why is he special? He founded his own school, his ideas.
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How Did Plato & Aristotle Differ?
Plato = pure rationalism, perfect forms
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Aristotle = believes in the rational mind, but he believes that you can experience
the world because it's a real thing.
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Big Ideas
Believed that imagery is the only thought.
Debate is ongoing - can you have imageless thought?
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Tried to understand the world by experiencing the world & interpreting as much
data as possible.
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Thought that Plato's idea of Perfect Forms didn't make sense - form & substance
had to be parts of the same thing.
Rejects this idea of the perfect mathematical world - reject metaphysical
explanation.
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Early alchemy
Elements all work in tandem
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Explains heaven & earth
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Rules for memory
Similarity & association - two main ways in which memory works
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System of artificial memory, pneumonic devices, method of loci
You have a mental framework into which you can associate
whatever you like.
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(e.g., imagine your house, walking through your rooms - some
familiar path - associate whatever you want to remember with
things along that path/places. The more bizarre/distinctive you can
make them, the better memory)
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Biology - taxonomy
Thinks about this with relation to mind/metaphysical things.
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Framed "What is it that is the mind. How is it different from just being
alive?"
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Plants, animals, humans -- all alive, but different.
Different between dead/alive -- there's a life force.
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Everything has some basic livingness.
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But animals + humans have this additional sensory ability.
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Humans in addition have a rational mind.
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First step in establishing the scale of nature.
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… the world isn't random.
Teleological - there's some progression of things with an end goal in mind.
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In science, we want to stop thinking this way.
E.g., Thinking the goal of evolution is humans - you could only think
that because of where we are now, although science has
established how evolution works.
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Christian view - humans are made in the likeness of God.
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Aristotle's scale of nature goes with the Christian/Teleological view that
humans are at the top.
Not random, it's supposed to be this way according to Aristotle.
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Historical Influence
After leaving Plato, becomes a personal tutor for Alexander the Great (before
the greatness).
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Alexander the Great spread Greek culture.
Pre-roman Empire culture was less developed, but more militaristic -
when they conquered these Greek cultures, they adopted their ideas.
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Education for military & engineering purposes was more important in
Roman culture, unlike Greek culture.
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Q & A
Mind can't have disease?
The mind is separate from the physical body - trying to establish this
distinction.
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Body can age, get diseased & die.
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Soul isn't part of your physical self so even when you get old & cannot
recall things, it's because of the veil of your aging body that this occurs.
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Main Idea: The way he thinks about the world is the early basis of empiricism.
Taking evidence from the world to constrain our ideas/conclusions to only what
comes from our sensory experience.
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Not an experimentalist, but rather an avid observer of the world.
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Ancient Greek: Aristotle
Thursday, January 11, 2018
9:31 AM
Document Summary
Really is the basis for how we do science. His work/teaching survived in the west much better than ancient ideas did. Picked up by the christian church in the middle ages & was adopted into religious doctrine. This is the reason aristotle hangs with us. They aren"t at odds with the prevailing religious beliefs. Aristotle = believes in the rational mind, but he believes that you can experience the world because it"s a real thing. Tried to understand the world by experiencing the world & interpreting as much data as possible. Thought that plato"s idea of perfect forms didn"t make sense - form & substance had to be parts of the same thing. Rejects this idea of the perfect mathematical world - reject metaphysical explanation. Similarity & association - two main ways in which memory works. System of artificial memory, pneumonic devices, method of loci.
