Pre-Socratics
What did Pythagoras think all things were made of?
Pythagoras thought all things were made of number.
(The order of the universe is like a harmony, and musical harmonies come from ratios of numbers.)
What are the three components of every change?
Every state has initial state, final state, and thing changed.
(privation, perfection, subject)
(potency, act, subject)
Are you wearing flip flops?
I am wearing flip flops potentially, but not actually.
("I am not wearing flip flops" is incorrect.)
In a green lizard, what is the substance and what is the accident?
Substance is lizard, accident is green.
(Lizard is what the thing is, green is something about it.)
What are the four causes?
The four causes are the material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, final cause.
What were the four elements of Empedocles?
Empedocles said all things are fire, air, water, and earth.
(These were kept by Aristotle. Also, Empedocles jumped into a volcano.)
Nature remains the same in accidental change.
(Same as superficial change. What changes is an accident, something about the thing.)
What is the difference between potency and nonbeing?
Potency means that a thing can be a certain way; nonbeing means that the thing cannot be that way at all.
(What they have in common is that neither is actual being.)
What is substance?
Substance is a thing existing in itself.
(It is the thing itself, the identity, the what-it-is. "To be" is said primarily of substance.)
What is the material cause?
The material cause, or matter, of a thing is what it is made of.
(Matter is potentially an actual thing. The same matter can be different things.)
What are all things made of, according to Democritus?
Democritus said all things are composed of indivisible particles called atoms.
('Atomos' is Greek for indivisible. He didn't really have any evidence for his position.)
In what kind of change is the thing no longer the same thing at the end, i.e. its nature has changed?
The nature of a thing is altered in substantial change.
(Same as radical change. What changed is the substance, the nature, the what-it-is.)
I am potentially two years old.
(Being two years old is not contrary to my nature; when I was two years old I was still myself, so it is clearly possible for me to be two years old.)
What is accident?
Accident is a thing existing in something else.
(Accidents don't exist by themselves. They are qualities or properties or characteristics of other things.)Which cause makes flesh and blood a human being instead of a human corpse?
The formal cause makes flesh and blood a living human being.
(The formal cause, or form, of a living being is called its soul, so the form of human is called the human soul. Some forms are substantial and some are accidental.)
Who said that all things are in flux and that opposites are the same?
Heraclitus said all things are in flux and that opposites are the same.
(He also said fire was the best or most important element.)
What observation led Aristotle to conclude that the planets are unchanging?
The planets are in constant motion without initial or final state.
(Every change needs an initial and a final state.)
What is prime matter?
Prime matter is the potency to be substance.
(In substantial change, nothing actual remains since the foundation (substance) is different in the initial and final states. The subject, called prime matter, is not actually anything.)
What is the subject of accidental change?
Substance is the subject of accidental change.
(The same substance is present before and after the accident is altered.)
What unites the material and formal causes?
The efficient cause unites matter and form into a thing.
(The efficient cause is generally whatever makes the thing. The English word "cause" usually refers to the efficient cause.)
Who were the first three monists and what did they think was the arche?
Thales thought the arche was water, Anaximander thought it was apeiron, and Anaximenes though it was air.
(Monists think the arche (the fundamental principle) is just one thing. Apeiron means boundless or formless.)
How did Parmenides argue that change is impossible?
All change is from nonbeing to being, i.e. nonbeing is the initial state of the change. But nonbeing does not exist. So every change lacks an initial state. So there is no change.
How do potency & act resolve the argument given by Parmenides that change is impossible?
Change is not from nonbeing to being (which is impossible, since there is no nonbeing), but from potential being to actual being.
What is the difference between substantial form and accidental form?
Substantial form makes prime matter an actual substance, while accidental form gives a substance an actual accident.
(Prime matter is potentially a substance and a substance potentially has accidents.)
What is the final cause?
The final cause is the end toward which the efficient cause works as it produces the thing.
(The purpose of the maker of the thing, often just the thing itself.)