How many ways can you

link this picture to Aristotle's argument?

Part B)

Critical Analysis

Strength OneAristotle’s theory is based on logic, gained through using senses, which he says are available to anyone. This makes his approach more acceptable as it is based around concepts that everyone can discover.

However: -

Still, Aristotle's arguments could be supported by fellow empiricists such as Hume, Locke and Berkeley who all used their senses to find meaning and truth.

Strength TwoAristotle’s idea of the Prime Mover can be compared to the Christian God. This means that even though God cannot be proven, millions of Christians still believe in the idea, so makes Aristotle’s Prime Mover a more conceivable basis for an argument even though there is no proof.

However Christians may not agree with this idea of ‘God’ because:

Although, Christian thinker Thomas Aquinas used Aristotle`s concept of the Prime Mover to develop his cosmological argument for the existence of God.

Furthermore an atheist may appreciate the Prime Mover because:

Weakness One

• Senses are different from person to person. This means that

the information they give us is subjective. Rationalists like

Descartes take a sceptical approach to the reliability of the

senses and argue for an ‘a priori’ (before experience)

approach to knowledge.

• Who would agree with this weakness and why?

• In defence of Aristotle one could argue:

Weakness Two

Aristotle says ‘nothing comes from nothing’ but then contradicts

himself by saying that the Prime Mover does.

Furthermore Aristotle says that the Prime Mover is eternal

thought but where did the matter come from that made the

world? Especially if nothing comes from nothing.

However:

Weakness Three• Aristotle bases his theory on idea that everything has a purpose.

But is this exactly true? What about an ostriches’ wings, they are not used to fly or swim and have no special purpose.

• However:

• Yet, Darwin’s theories of natural selection seem to go against the notion of purpose or teleology because natural selection is based on instincts and survival of fittest rather than that species having a purpose or not in the case of extinction.

Final PointDoes the universe have to have a purpose at all? Many people believe that there is no purpose to the universe

and things happen by chance.

Bertrand Russell, for example, has argued that

“The universe is just there, and that`s all.”

• If this is true what happens to Aristotle's argument?

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