Explain Aristotle Essay examples

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Explain Aristotle’s concept of the Prime Mover

Aristotle believed that everything in the universe was in a constant state of motion/change; due to this idea he also believed that something had to be the cause of all the change and movement in the universe, and this thing must be eternal.
For something to come into existence it must be caused to by something else, changing from its actual state to its potential state. For example an actual baby is potentially an adult, or an actual see is potentially a flower.
Aristotle understood that the movement and change of the planet was eternal, therefore he believed that there must be some continual cause for this change. He called this cause, the prime mover.
In Aristotle’s mind, the prime mover had to exist otherwise nothing on the planet would, this means it exists by necessity (has to exist).
In Aristotle’s four causes (explaining why things exist) the prime mover is considered to be the final cause, it is the main reason for movement. He also believed that because the Prime mover is eternal and unchanging, it must be good. This is because, something that can change therefore has the potential to be better, whereas the Prime mover does not have that potential so therefore must be already good. The more common name given to the prime mover is God. God it a leader and the universe depends on God for its existence.
In conclusion, the prime mover or God is the cause for all change from actually to potentiality.

‘An accidental universe is as likely as a created one.’ Discuss.

In the Bible, God is described as the creator. There are a few difference stories and ideas over how God actually created the universe such as God simply commanding things and they appear. Christians also strongly believe that God created the universe out of nothing;

Machiavelli's Argument Analysis

Aristotle was also an ancient Greek philosopher, was born in 384 B.C. He was a student in Plato’s Academy and was a tutor for Alexander the Great. He eventually moved on to create his own school in Athens, where he wrote about many different topics including politics, ethics and poetry, etc. Aristotle wrote Politics as a tool to explain political communities of the time, where they fell short and what to improve on. Aristotle wanted to explain in his book, Politics, that there were six forms of government…

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Comparing Plato's Republic, Nicomachean Ethics And Politics

He explains that those with unequal occupations (doctor and farmer) need to trade equally with each other, but it is impossible to exchange these things since they are not equal. For the sake of these types of relations money is introduced and becomes in sense…

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Essay on Aristotle Ethics

2/19/07 Aristotle Ethics Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics provides a sensible account for what true moral virtue is and how one may go about attaining it. Aristotle covers many topics that help reach this conclusion. One of them being the idea of mean between the extremes. Although Aristotle provided a reliable account for many philosophers to follow, Rosalind Hursthouse along with many others finds lose ends and topics which can be easily misinterpreted in Aristotle's writing. Aristotle explains…

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Aristotle's Rhetorical Triangle Analysis

Aristotle was born 2402 years ago in Macedonia; his teachings are still in practice to this day. According to Christopher Shields, Over the course of his life Aristotle became possibly the most influential philosopher in history. Rivaled only by his teacher, Pluto. Aristotle’s teachings where considered second only to the Bible through out much of the history of western civilization. Aristotle was sent to study under Pluto in Athens when he was seventeen. He studied an array of subjects from philosophy…

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Explain How Can We Tell If We Are Doing The Right Thing

they are “doing the right thing”? Philosophers based their own theories based on what they believe is right and “morally correct”. The theories and principles made by Mill, Kant, and Aristotle explain their unique views on what is right and wrong. I will analyze similarities and differences between theories to explain what I believe is the right thing to do.…

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Moral Virtue In Book II Of The Nicomachean Ethics

Aristotle discusses moral virtue and how like activities aid in the process of gaining moral virtue in Book II of The Nicomachean Ethics. According to Aristotle in Book II, “Moral Virtue, How It Is Acquired,” moral virtue is acquired through the repetition of habits. Good moral virtue will only be gained if a human performs good and just habits. If a human performs bad and unjust habits they will not gain positive moral virtue. No moral virtue appears in humans by nature, “for nothing that exists…

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Metaphysics Passage Analysis Essay

Metaphysics Passage Analysis Describe the argument presented: In the first paragraph of this passage, Aristotle explains his principle of the four causes, in relation to Causation. In his text, he states that the first cause is from a material, the second cause is derived from the form, the third cause is from the change of the resting form or the force. The last example presented is described as the final cause, and is ultimately the ending purpose behind the form. He uses this argument…

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Nichomachean Ethics By Aristotle Virtues

Aristotle lists many virtues in book II of the “Nichomachean Ethics”. Aristotle defines virtues as good habits, they are something we acquire over time. He explains that these habits have an excess, a mean, and a deficiency. The excess and deficiency of a habit ruins the strength and will not facilitate a life of human flourishing. To live a life of human flourishing, one must choose to live by the mean of the virtue, or the intermediate state between the excess and deficiencies. Most of Aristotle’s…

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Aristotle's Fatigue: Aristotelian Virtue

money in the right places and for the right causes or right people (Aristotle 54). Aristotle says “Magnificence is expenditure that is fitting [prepousa] in its large scale [megethos]” (Aristotle 54). In this, he is not saying that spending large sums of money makes one magnificent, rather one only obtains this virtue by spending money suitably based on the value of the cause, therefore making it “worthy of the expense” (Aristotle 55). In other words, spending selfishly or without purpose is not magnificent…

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Antigone The Role Of Fate In Oedipus

1. With reference to the text, compare the role of fate in Oedipus the King and The Eumenides. Explain what the idea of fate shows us about human nature and/or the situation of choice. It is acceptable for this answer to treat the Furies as ‘human’ rather than ‘god’ but you can also think of them as gods. The role of fate in Oedipus the King and The Eumenides correlates with one another because it is pre-determined that Oedipus and Orestes would kill their parents. The concepts of Greek philosophy…

Words 984 - Pages 4