A-Level Religious Studies — Philosophy, Ethics & Christianity

Plato

• The Theory of Forms: the material world is a world of appearances/change; true reality is the eternal, perfect Forms (grasped by reason, not the senses). The Form of the Good is the highest, illuminating all others.
• The Analogy of the Cave: prisoners mistake shadows for reality; the freed prisoner (the philosopher) ascends to the sunlight (the Good) - representing the journey from ignorance/the senses to knowledge/reason.
• Body-soul dualism: the soul is immortal and belongs to the world of Forms.

Aristotle

• A posteriori, empirical emphasis - knowledge comes through the senses and observation of the material world (contrast with Plato's rationalism).
• The Four Causes: material (what a thing is made of), formal (its structure/form), efficient (what brought it about), and final cause (telos) - its purpose/end.
• The Prime Mover: the ultimate final cause of all motion/change - eternal, immaterial, perfect, and drawing things toward itself as an object of desire (not creating like the theistic God).

Comparison and evaluation

• Rationalism (Plato) vs empiricism (Aristotle); strengths/weaknesses of the Forms (do they exist? the "third man") and the Four Causes/Prime Mover.

Contrast Plato's rationalist Forms with Aristotle's empirical Four Causes/Prime Mover, and evaluate each - these underpin later arguments about God.

Diagram