PHILOS 25A Lecture Notes - Lecture 22: Pre-Socratic Philosophy, Dialectic
Document Summary
Phaedo: forms and causes: distinction between f things and f-ness. For example, a horse partakes in what it is to be a horse, but we do not take the horse to be the same thing as what it is to be a horse. A thing can be f or not, based on what f-ness is: f-ness is the standard by which one identifies f-things. Forms are exemplary objects of the intellect: f-ness is the cause of f things" being f. Separate (from perceptible things) (this is the most controversial claim) Forms as causes: forms do not cause things by actively acting upon the physical world. Rather, f-ness gives rise to f-things by way of participation. F-things participate in f-ness and strive to achieve f-ness. Socrates" search for the cause of things: socrates was disappointed with presocratic philosophy because it always explained physical events with physical causes.
