• What are Socrates’s ideas on how we “come to know”? What...

• What are Socrates’s ideas on how we “come to know”? What example does Socrates use to Meno, found on p. 56 of Philosophy: The Power of Ideas. Write a 350- to 700-word essay on the following: • prove his point? • Do you agree with Socrates’s ideas? • Using the Socratic method and The Good Thinker’s Tool Kit, formulate at least one question you would ask Socrates about his views on knowledge. Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.

63
4
Aristotle
Motion being eternal, the first mover, if there is but one, will be eternal also.
—Aristotle
lato’s most distinguished pupil was
Aristotle (384–322
B
.
C
.
E .), on whom
Plato had a tremendous influence. Aristotle was eventually hired to teach
Alexander the Great, and Alexander attributed his happiness to his teacher,
Aristotle. Nevertheless, it is a good bet that Alexander, who conquered the world,
was not preoccupied with philosophy. We noted earlier we owe the term
metaphysics
to Aristotle, or at least to those
who cataloged his works. But metaphysics formed just a part of Aristotle’s interests.
Aristotle was interested in every subject that came along, and he had something rea-
sonably intelligent to say about all of them, from poetry to physics, from biology to
friendship.
Aristotle’s books are more systematic than are Plato’s, which provides evi-
dence of his more painstaking attention to nature. It should tell you something, however, that, although Plato is a main staple of any decent literature program,
Aristotle is not. Cicero did praise Aristotle for his “copious and golden eloquence,”
but many Fnd Aristotle a bit tedious. Maybe that is because what we have from
Aristotle is mainly lecture notes edited by some of his students.
Nevertheless, Aristotle was a careful observer and a brilliant theorizer, and his thought influenced philosophy in the future. Some Ffteen centuries after his death,
he was considered the deFnitive authority on all subjects outside religion, a fact
that may have impeded more than it helped scientiFc progress because science, to
get anywhere, cannot assume that something is so solely because some authority says that it is so, even if that authority is Aristotle.
What we call metaphysics Aristotle called “Frst philosophy.” ±irst philosophy,
in Aristotle’s view, is in some sense more abstract and general than are the speciFc P

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Phaedo
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