Aristotelian Analysis (Conflict Resolution) *05 > Summary

Affiliation: Omega
Starts: 6/1/05      Ends: 9/1/05
Leaders: elindblom
Keywords: Harvard,lindblom,Analysis,Eric J. Lindblom PhD
Participants: 19 (view all)
Description:

lindblom Post-graduate level law::::: Aristotle: This course shall explore foundations of western thought (particularly analysis) that led to the formulation of European and American law. The quest is intended to be a step-by-step process in recognition that there may well be plural epistomologies. The course is the first step to the formulation of a new disciplined inquiry into Quantum Psychology tentatively called General Systems Theory 2. This course is the first in a h2o Harvard series to explore Fifth Force Psychology.

Hint: "Aristotle is actually quite an easy read." www.wsu.edu

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As a disciplined inquiry, the course shall begin with a fairly standard application of The Scientific Method defined as:

The Scientific Method:
1. identify researchable problem
2. derive hypothesis
3. literature review of research
4. develop methodology
5. data collection and analysis
6. analysis
7. falsification
8. results & conclusions
9. interpretation

For further information about The Scientific Method, please google "Karl Popper."

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See project at blackboard.com

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"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Aristotle
"http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Aristotle/

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See course support website:

***** http://aristoteliananalysis.bravehost.com

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"Aristotle represents for most of us an icon of difficult or abstruse philosophical thinking; to know Aristotle often provokes hushed whispers even from highly educated people. For all this reputation, though, Aristotle is actually quite an easy read, for the man thought with an incredible clarity and wrote with a superhuman precision. "

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/GREECE/ARIST.HTM

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Course Objectives:

have an understanding of Aristotlelian natural philosophy

have an understanding of how Aristotle formed a basis of western thought

have an appreciation of how Aristotle constructs logic and cause

improve your ability for close reading (vis a vis literary theory)

examine critically central issues

apply what you have learned to your discipline (i.e. law)

write, publish!

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"Aristotle, more than any other thinker, determined the orientation and the content of Western intellectual history. He was the author of a philosophical and scientific system that through the centuries became the support and vehicle for both me There are four distinct kinds of cause:

1. Material cause: "that out of which a thing comes to be, and which persists"
a) The statue is made of bronze
b) Bronze things are malleable
The statue is malleable.

2. Formal cause: "the essence," "the account of what-it-is- to-be, and the parts of the account."
a) The moon is deprived of light when screened by the earth
b) Things deprived of light by screening are eclipsed
The moon is eclipsed.

3. Efficient cause: "the primary source of change"
a) The child has a snub nosed father
b) Children of snub nosed fathers are snub nosed
The child is snub nosed.

4. Final cause: "the end (telos), that for the sake of which a thing is done"
a) Houses are shelters for belongings
b) Shelters for belongings are roofed
Houses are roofed.

Material and formal causes are preconditions for change, in that they allow for the distinction between matter and form in terms of change. They are static, in that they tell us what the world is like at the moment.

Efficient and final causes explain why things actually come to be what they are. They are dynamic, in that they explain why matter has come to be formed in the way that it has, and in doing so explain change
dieval Christian and Islamic scholastic thought: until the end of the 17th century, Western culture was Aristotelian."http://tom.acrewoods.net/research/philosophy/aristotle/fourcauses

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See:

 http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Aristotle.html

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The practice of western thought revolves around Aristotelian Analysis:

Aristotelian Analysis, the foundation of Western Thought, is based on the Greek word "Aitia" often translated as "cause." There is a relationship to law. "Aitia means "credit" for the good or bad, or the legal "responsibility". (It doesn't mean cause per se.) Aristotle

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Aristotelian Analysis is based in four causes:

1. Material cause

2. Formal cause:

3. Efficient cause

4. Final cause

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TO SEE THE COURSE WORK OF THIS COURSE, PLEASE CLICK: Blackboard.com

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Also, just for fun, visit the course supportive website:

http://homepage.scholastic.com/classpages/login.cfm

Sign in as username: "student" and password: "scholasticism"

Scholastic.com is for children and parents but, here, is used for a college course anyway!

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Deep Background:

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"In the original Greek, the word that is commonly translated as "cause" today is aition (singular of the adjective aitios - used as a noun),  aitia (plural noun). Aition means "that on which the legal responsibility for a given state of affairs can be laid". Aitia means "credit" for the good or bad, or the legal "responsibility". So what Aristotle delineates with the four fashions are the factors that are "responsible for" or "credited with" a thing having the form, the nature, it has. These phrases must be understood not as referring to antecedents, but rather to active agents. So, to be "responsible for" or be "credited with" refers to agents actively involved in a process, not to ones that had some prior involvement." http://www.panmere.com/rosen/faq_aristotelian_analysis.htm

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General Introduction

Aristotle (384-322 BCE.):
"Aristotle's writings on the general subject of logic were grouped by the later Peripatetics under the name Organon, or instrument. From their perspective, logic and reasoning was the chief preparatory instrument of scientific investigation. Aristotle himself, however, uses the term "logic" as equivalent to verbal reasoning." http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/a/aristotl.htm#H3
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Learning Objectives Bloom's Taxonomy

"Competence Skills Demonstrated
Knowledge  observation and recall of information
knowledge of dates, events, places
knowledge of major ideas
mastery of subject matter
Question Cues:
list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where, etc.

Comprehension understanding information
grasp meaning
translate knowledge into new context
interpret facts, compare, contrast
order, group, infer causes
predict consequences
Question Cues:
summarize, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend

Application use information
use methods, concepts, theories in new situations
solve problems using required skills or knowledge
Questions Cues:
apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover

Analysis seeing patterns
organization of parts
recognition of hidden meanings
identification of components
Question Cues:
analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, explain, infer

Synthesis use old ideas to create new ones
generalize from given facts
relate knowledge from several areas
predict, draw conclusions
Question Cues:
combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, compose, formulate, prepare, generalize, rewrite

Evaluation compare and discriminate between ideas
assess value of theories, presentations
make choices based on reasoned argument
verify value of evidence
recognize subjectivity
Question Cues:
assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support, conclude, compare, summarize"

http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/resources/tutorials/assessment/bloomtaxonomy.asp

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Questions for Course Analysis:

Who will be performing the desired behaviour?
What should the student be able to do within the course?
When? Under what conditions do you want the student to be able to do it?
How well must it be done?

modified from: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/EDTEC540/objectives/Components.html

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Professional Website:

http://elindblom.bravehost.com

Meta Tags for this course:

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Scholastic:

<A HREF="http://homepage.scholastic.com/classpages/start.cfm?id=177696&pw=14247">Harvard University</A>

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Eric J. Lindblom PhD