Aristotle Metaphysics Questions 1 PDF

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Questions for Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Book 1, sections 1-3 and section 6 Section 1 1. What evidence does Aristotle give for his famous claim that “all men by nature desire to know.” How might he explain instances of human beings seem to lack this desire? 2. How does Aristotle relate “experience” and “art”? What does he mean by these key terms? 3. How does Aristotle illustrate the following cases? (a) theory without experience (b) experience without theory (c) understanding/art plus experience

(Can you give your own illustrations?)

4. How does Aristotle pay tribute to the power of the senses? Why are they nonetheless insufficient for wisdom? 5. What is the hierarchy of human types that Aristotle sketches at the end of section 1. In what sense is wisdom (sophia) the principle of the hierarchy? Section 2 1. Wisdom is knowledge about certain principles (archai—starting points) and causes. To gain this knowledge, Aristotle catalogs commonly accepted notions about the wise man. What are these notions? How much do they tell us about wisdom? 2. What does Aristotle mean when he says that wisdom is “not a science of production”? In what sense is wisdom the only “free” science? 3. Some—for example, the poets—say that wisdom is beyond human power. How does Aristotle reply to this objection? 4. How are wisdom and “wonder” related? Sections 3 and 6 1. At the beginning of section 3, Aristotle mentions four types of causes. Which type do the “first philosophers” investigate? 2. What, according to Aristotle, do the accounts given by Thales, Anaximenes, Diogenes, Hippastus, and Heraclitus all have in common? 3. What does Aristotle say prompts human beings to look beyond the “so-called material cause”? What reasons does he give against limiting oneself to the material cause? 4. Turn to Aristotle’s summary and critique of Plato in sec. 6. What is Aristotle’s critique of his former teacher? (See if you can make sense of the table-making example.)...