Plato believed in a world of ideal Forms that represented perfect, eternal concepts which could only be understood through reason. The material world we perceive with our senses is merely an imperfect reflection of these Forms. In contrast, Aristotle emphasized empirical observation and believed that forms exist within particular objects, not as separate ideals. He analyzed various causes including efficient, final, formal, material, and instrumental causes to understand natural phenomena by reasoning from observations of particulars to general principles.

1. Plato, Aristotle and Formality

2. Plato’s Forms
World of the Forms (Universals)
(beyond the senses, but real;
known through the mind / reason;
unchanging)
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World of Matter (Particulars)
(world of experience; known through the senses; flux)
• Body/Soul dichotomy
• Neoplatonism (Plotinus, AD 205-270): Movement toward the One; Intellectual
mysticism (the individual’s direct apprehension of the deity)

3. Aristotle and Forms
• Emphasis on empiricism, looking at the particulars
of the natural world.
• “Empirical” = based on observation.
• Sense perception is important.
• The form (universal) exists in the individual object
(i.e., no separation)
• Reason from particulars to the general principle.

4. Understanding various causes
 The efficient cause (the labor that produced something)
 The final cause (the reason something was produced)
 The formal cause (the pattern for what was produced)
 The material cause (that from which something was
produced)
 The instrumental cause (the instruments or occasion
that were used to produce something)