A paper of 1000 words (minimum word count—any paper more than 150 words short of this minimum will not be accepted as a complete paper) to 1500 words (maximum word count—you may exceed this without penalty only if it is essential to attaining the purpose of your paper). You may refer to your lecture notes and the course readings for this exam, but you may NOT refer to any sources not used in the course.Be sure to read the question carefully so that your answer is complete. Make sure your answer addresses the specific question asked—i.e., do not load your essay with general information.
BACKGROUND FOR THE QUESTION:
Consider the dualism of a) concrete physical objects (world as fundamentally physical and changing) vs. b) abstract conceptual objects (world as fundamentally conceptual and unchanging). These are two competing paradigms (cf. Kuhn) by which the natural world was understood by ancient Greek natural philosophers (ancient ‘scientists’).
QUESTION (3 parts)
FIRST: Discuss
a) one pre-Socratic thinker (or school of thought) representing the concrete physical object side of the above dualism, and
b) one pre-Socratic thinker (or school of thought) representing the abstract conceptual object side of the dualism.
SECOND: Describe how this dualism maps onto Plato’s simile of the line in Book VI of The Republic. In other words: Discuss how the sections of Plato’s line relate a) the material, sensory world of contingent change—of physical causes and effects—to b) the rational world of permanent, necessary conceptual objects (numbers, the Forms, etc.)
THIRD: Describe how Aristotle refines this Platonic paradigm. Specifically:
a) How does Aristotle change the sections of Plato’s line and their relationship in order to bridge the dualism of physical and conceptual?
b) How does Aristotle depict the ‘climb up and down the line’ and what are the toolshe develops for this climb? Finally,
c) Discuss at least one major flaw in Aristotle’s method, and how this flaw is corrected in modern science.
SOURCES:
Edward Grant. A History of Natural Philosophy: From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970, 2nd ed., 1970, 3rd ed., 1996, or 4th ed., 2012.