PHIL250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Eudaimonia, Virtue Ethics, Unmoved Mover
5 Jan 2016
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Ousia: being, isness, thingness (rather than substance which was used because of translation upon translation) Energeia: actuality (not real-world and is as it is, unchanging) but as in energy, activity at home in itself, being-at-work. Dunamis: possibility, active in the sense that it needs something itself; potency. Aitia: cause; 4 senses: formal (shape, idea of it), material (what it made of), efficient (that which brings the effect out), final (purpose, the sake of which it is) Efficient cause is what is generalized as causality. But formal and final cause should not be swept aside, they are legitimate ways of thinking of causes of things, what makes it what it is. What we care about is internal teleology: the organism itself being its own ends, purpose determined by itself. A good that is good in itself is what we are seeking. Being in the highest sense is both formal and final cause for aristotle.
