Aristotelian realism is based on Aristotle's philosophy which asserts that reality exists independently of observers. Aristotle believed that through observation and experience, people can gain true knowledge about the world. He identified four causes to explain change: the material, formal, efficient, and final causes. Aristotle's conception of realism was that universals exist outside of the mind and people can understand aspects of the objective world through perception using their five senses.

1. ARISTOTELIAN REALISM
Ed 506 Philosophy of Education
By Rey Jun C. Dieron

2. REALISM:
belief that reality exists independently of observers
whatever we believe now is only an approximation of
reality and that every new observation brings us closer
to understanding reality
a doctrine that universals exist outside the mind;
specifically : the conception that an abstract term
names an independent and unitary reality

3. REALISM:
The doctrine that objects of sense perception have an
existence independent of the act of perception.
theory that things exist objectively: the theory that
things such as universals, moral facts, and theoretical
scientific entities exist independently of people's
thoughts and perceptions
theory of objectively existing world: the theory that
there is an objectively existing world, not dependent on
our minds, and that people are able to understand
aspects of that world through perception

4. ARISTOTLE
(384-322 B.C.)
Ancient Greek philosopher
Aristotle was born circa 384 B.C.
in Stagira, Greece. When he
turned 17, he enrolled in Plato’s
Academy. In 338, he began
tutoring Alexander the Great. In
335, Aristotle founded his own
school, the Lyceum, in Athens,
where he spent most of the rest
of his life studying, teaching and
writing. Aristotle died in 322
B.C., after he left Athens and
fled to Chalcis.

5. ARISTOTLE
(384-322 B.C.)
• Senses are source of knowledge.
• Man forms universals, or categories, from many
perceptions of like objects.
• Presents deductive reasoning based on experience
as method of science and philosophy.
• produced books in natural science, biology, and
psychology.
• Aristotle’s Metaphysics produces his view of God as
the First Cause Uncaused, pure thought, internal to
nature.
• Ethics is concerned with individual happiness;
Politics is concerned with collective happiness.

6. FORMS OF SOUL
ARISTOTLE’S
PHILOSOPHY OF REALISM

7. is the conscious and intellectual soul peculiar to man
possessed by plants in that they grow and decay and
enjoy nutriment, but they do not have motion and
sensation
bestows animals with motion and sensation
Forms of Soul:
Nutritive Soul
(plant life)
Sensitive Soul
(animal life)
Rational Soul
(human life)

8. FOUR CAUSES
ARISTOTLE’S
PHILOSOPHY OF REALISM

9. describes the
material out
of which
something is
composed.
FOUR CAUSES:
MATERIAL
CAUSE
FORMAL
CAUSE
EFFICIENT
CAUSE
FINAL
CAUSE
is that for the sake of
which a thing exists or is
done, including both
purposeful and
instrumental actions and
activities. The efficient
cause, the formal cause,
and the final cause
coincide in the concept of
"form." Hence form is the
propelling, organizing and
final principle of
becoming.
is that from which the
change or the ending
of the change first
starts. It identifies
'what makes of what is
made and what
causes change of what
is changed' and so
suggests all sorts of
agents, nonliving or
living, acting as the
sources of change or
movement or rest.
tells us what
a thing is,
that anything
is determined
by the
definition,
form, pattern,
essence,
whole,
synthesis or
archetype

10. FOUR CAUSES:
To be able to give a rational
account of constant change in the realm of
natural beings and consequently to lay
ground for physics as an explanatory
potent science Aristotle introduces a
scheme of causal relations.
Nature itself is a principle and a
cause of change. But we speak about the
cause with regard to four different points
of reference each pointing to one aspect of
the more general question "why something
is".

11. To ask "why something is" means to
identify main factors in the process of
potentiality realization. Aristotle
explicates this question in a fourfold way:
The material cause points to "that from
which, as a constituent, an object
comes into being." (For instance, the
bronze of a statue.)
1. Out of what
has a thing
come?
Answer obtained
by identifying: The
Material Cause:

12. To ask "why something is" means to
identify main factors in the process of
potentiality realization. Aristotle
explicates this question in a fourfold way:
The formal cause embodies the essential
nature (all essential attributes) and
represents the model or archetype of the
outcome; conceptually it is expressed in the
definition (logos). (It is the idea of the statue
as present in artist's head.)
2. What is it?
Answer obtained by
identifying: The
Formal Cause:

13. To ask "why something is" means to
identify main factors in the process of
potentiality realization. Aristotle
explicates this question in a fourfold way:
The efficient cause is "the source of the
change or rest"; it is the moving cause:
"what makes of what is made and what
changes of what is changed" (the
sculptor who makes the statue).
3. By means
of what is it?
Answer obtained by
identifying: The
Efficient Cause:

14. To ask "why something is" means to
identify main factors in the process of
potentiality realization. Aristotle
explicates this question in a fourfold way:
The final cause states "that for the sake
of which" a thing is done, or, in other
words, it explicates something's end
(the final shape or the effect on the
audience which admires the statue).
4. For the
sake of what
is it?
Answer obtained by
identifying: The Final
Cause:

15. THE END!