In this ppt drecribe by aristotle and descarts

1. Aristotle

2. Theory of Causation
• Human and Cosmic creation is of the same nature.
• In human production ex. Chair there are four kind of causes at work
simultaneously.
• Namely:
• A) Material ( Of What Chair is made of : Wood)
• B) Efficient ( The Skill and Labor required to make the chair)
• C) Formal ( The Shape, the design and the kind of Chair)
• D) Final ( The Purpose of the Chair)
• Why is this Theory relevant: Aristotle tried to explain the creation of
Universe using this theory
• Namely: What is Universe made of?
• How was it made?
• What is its shape?
• And Why was it made

3. Form and matter
• All the three causes Efficient, Formal and Final are
really one and Aristotle called it Form.
• But Material cause can not be reduced to any kind of
cause.
• So ultimately their are two things in the universe
namely matter and form.
• By matter Aristotle means something which has no
shape, no quality of any type. It is neither green nor
red, neither heavy nor light.
• It has to be something which is to be moulded by the
form into Physical matter, life and conscious being.

4. Contd.
• Primal matter has no form but it gives way to
all things by the form.
• Neither matter nor form exists by itself.
• What exists is formed matter.
• A form is a universal.
• Matter and form are indistinguishable.
• They can be separated only in our mind not in
reality.

5. Potentiality and Actuality
• Matter by itself has no form.
• It is lawless, formless and purposeless.
• Clay by itself is nothing but it has the capacity of
becoming either a brick or a cooking vessel and so on.
• Aristotle calls it potentiality ( Capacity to become
something)
• What makes the matter actual it is the form.
• The Potter with his skill idea of a brick forms the clay
into a brick.
• Form is the principle of actualization.

6. Contd.
• Everything that comes to moves towards a
principle i.e. an end.
• A seed has the potentiality of becoming a
tree, but this potentiality can not be separated
from seed.

7. Soul and God
• All things in the world are arranged in the hierarchical order.
• For Ex. You come under the species “Man”.
• Man comes under the class “Animals”
• Who comes under “creature”
• If we arrange all the classes in a hierarchical order we find at the
top a matter-less form.
• Actus Purus ( Pure activity) without any matter or potentiality.
• This Actus Purus is God.
• God is all perfect and has nothing which he wishes to realizes or
desire.
• It is said to be a Prime Mover in the same that it moves every thing
but itself remains unmoved.
• Pure potentiality of matter under the influence of Prime Mover
gets actualized from the lower order to higher order.

8. Descartes
• Initially tried to replace GoD with Science.
• Fate of Gallileo dissuaded him from doing so.
• But still Descartes Broke with tradition in two fundamental ways.
• The First was his rejection of Substantial Form as a principle that explains
things in Physics.
• Substantial Form was thought to be an principle that resulted in a thing of
a certain kind.
• For ex. The bird ( The substantial form of Bird unites with matter so as to
organize it for the bird kind of thing)
• This also explains the fact that any quality( Like Flying) that the bird kind
of thing has can be explained by the goal of bird which is to fly.
• In other words the purpose of the bird ( Final Form) is to fly hence it is
designed to fly.
• This mighty be true but it does not say anything new about the bird.
• Hence you can not discover any thing new using theory of forms.

9. Contd.
• Second reason he rejected the theory of forms was his
belief that their was a confusion of body with the mind.
• Ex. A stone.
• What is the purpose ( Final Cause of the stone) To fell
towards the Earth.
• But How can stone know it.
• It can’t think.
• It is a mistake to ascribe mental properties like knowledge
to entirely physical things like stone.
• How to avoid this mistake; By clearly distinguishing the idea
of mind (knowledge) from idea of body. ( stone)

10. Contd.
Second Fundamental point of difference Descartes had
was his denial that all knowledge comes from
sensation( Use of senses)
It was believed that every one is born with a clean slate
and that all learning comes through senses.
Descartes Argument: Senses can sometime deceive( eyes
cant see well in dark) hence not reliable. I am deeply
dissatisfied with such uncertain knowledge.
Descartes uses tree for his view of Philosophy.
“ The roots are meta physics ( Philosophy) trunk is
physics, branches are all other sciences, namely
medicine, mechanics and morals.

11. Contd.
• Descartes believed that there is one fundamental truth
which is beyond doubt and from which the rest of human
knowledge can be deduced.
• He reasoned Cogito ergo sum I think, therefore I am.
• I exist is beyond any doubt.
• What am “I” :
• Answer: “I” am a thinking thing a mind.
• A thing that doubts, understands, affirms , denies, is willing
imagines and has sense perceptions.
• Mind is non extended.
• Extension( Something that occupies space) is a natural
feature of body.

12. Role of God
• Ideas are either innate (born with in the mind, doubt, thinking etc.)
or those derived from out side world.
• But of all the ideas there is one innate idea of a being who is “
eternal, omniscient, omnipotent source of goodness and truth,
creator of all things and having in himself all those things in which
we can see some perfection which is infinite or tainted by no
imperfection”
• When we see blue skies, vast oceans huge mountains, beautiful
flowers we have couple of ideas’
• A) How beautiful, vast, large the thing is.
• B) Who created this beauty, size, colour
• What can be the cause of this idea?
• At least the cause must be equal to the effect.( Some body big must
have built huge mountain, some thing vast must have built the
oceans etc.)

13. Contd.
• I cannot be the cause, because I know myself
to be finite being.
• Hence the idea must have been craeted by an
equally perfect cause namely the infinitely
perfect being called God.
• Everything depends on God, who depends on
nothing.
• On him depend both mind and matter.

14. Proof for the existence of God
• Descartes has given the following proofs for
the existence of God.
• 1) Nothing greater can come from something
lesser ( You can not take 5 Apples from 3
Apples)
• 2) I know I exist ( My Consciousness should
come from something bigger than me)
• 3) This something bigger is God

15. 2nd Proof.
• Whatever I clearly and distinctly perceive to be
contained in the idea of something is true of that
thing. ( I clearly perceive red in rose, i.e. Red has
to be in rose otherwise I would not have known
red)
• I clearly and distinctly perceive that necessary
existence is contained in the idea of God.( When I
see universe I get an idea of God )
• Therefore, God exists. ( had there been no God I
would not have got its idea)

16. 3rd proof
• Cosmological proof:
• 1) Who is the cause of myself: My Parents
• 2) Who is the cause of them: Their parents
• 3) Who is the cause of all finite beings: A
perfect being called God