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CHAPTER 6
THE NATURALIST: ARISTOTLE
INSTRUCTIONS: Select the best answer according to the text.
TRUE/FALSE
1. What we know today as the writings of Aristotle are
really a collection of notes.
2. Aristotle agreed with his teacher Plato on all major
philosophical matters.
3. When Plato died, Aristotle was appointed head of the
Academy.
4. Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great.
5. Aristotle s school contained the first important library
in the West.
6. Aristotle was accused of one of the same charges leveled
against Socrates not respecting the gods of the state.
7. Aristotle believed in two levels of reality: the natural
and the supernatural.
8. Aristotle believed that human beings are not separate
from nature but are part of nature.
9. Aristotle based his ethics on how we actually behave, not on
some higher ideal.
10. Entelechy is Greek for soul.
11. Like Plato, Aristotle believed that there is one Form of
Ultimate Reality.
12. For Aristotle, soul is entelechy.
13. According to Aristotle, the lowest level of soul is the
sensitive, or sentient, soul.
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14. Aristotle believed that the sensitive soul has the potential
for deliberation.
15. Aristotle thought of happiness in terms of function.
16. Aristotle agreed with Plato that the Good is the highest
Idea in the hierarchy of Ideas.
17. Teleological thinking is a way of understanding things in
terms of their ultimate goals.
18. Aristotle identified eudaimonia with pleasure.
19. According to Aristotle, the good life is a process.
20. Sophrosyne is scientific knowledge of happiness.
21. According to Aristotle, virtue is goodness in the extreme.
22. According to Aristotle, it is better to err on the side of too
much rather than too little.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
23. What we know today as the writings of Aristotle
_____ .
a. are a collection of notes
b. are contained in the last few Platonic Dialogues
c. were really written by Diogenes Läertius
d. are none of these
24. Aristotle founded the _____ .
a. Academy
b. Museum
c. Lyceum
d. Lavorium
25. So great was Aristotle s influence on later thinkers
that for centuries, educated persons knew him simply
as _____ .
a. the Mentor
b. the Philosopher
c. the Teacher
d. the Sage
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26. Aristotle believed in _____ level(s) of reality.
a. one
b. two
c. three
d. countless
27. Aristotle is the first Western thinker of record to
provide an adequate analysis of the _____ of change.
a. fact
b. illusion
c. process
d. philosophy
28. Aristotle argued that _____ .
a. form can be distinguished from content in
fact
b. form is content
c. form cannot be distinguished from content in
fact
d. form can be distinguished from content only in
thought
29. According to Aristotle, _____ answers the question
What is that?
a. form
b. matter
c. energy
d. change
30. According to Aristotle, _____ answers the question
What is this?
a. form
b. matter
c. energy
d. change
31. According to Aristotle, _____ is that which makes a
thing what it is.
a. form
b. matter
c. energy
d. change
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32. According to Aristotle, _____ has no distinct
characteristics until its entelechy is actualized.
a. form
b. matter
c. energy
d. change
33. Aristotle characterized nature as _____ .
a. formed matter
b. matter in search of god
c. this whatever
d. that which is not yet finished
34. According to Aristotle, a complete understanding of
anything can only come from identifying its four
causes. The four causes are _____ .
a. material, formal, active, and final
b. material, formal, natural, and divine
c. material, formal, natural, and rational
d. material, formal, efficient, and final
35. According to Aristotle, the triggering action that
begins a thing is known as its _____ cause.
a. material
b. active
c. final
d. efficient
36. According to Aristotle, the ultimate goal or purpose
for which a thing exists is known as its _____ cause.
a. material
b. rational
c. final
d. efficient
37. Naturalism is the belief that _____ .
a. goodness flows naturally from all souls
b. fancy luxuries are unnecessary because natural
pleasures surpass all sophisticated ones
c. reality consists of the natural world
d. the mastery of nature will unlock the key to
supernatural insight
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38. Entelechy is Greek for _____ .
a. soul
b. having its end within itself
c. being sufficient unto itself
d. psyche
39. For Aristotle, soul is _____ .
a. the mind when it contemplates goodness
b. the form of the body
c. a property of the highest life forms only
d. b and c
40. For Aristotle, soul is _____ .
a. harmony
b. the mean
c. eudaimonia
d. entelechy
41. According to Aristotle, the lowest level of soul is the
_____ soul.
a. vegetative
b. masculine
c. material
d. sensitive
42. Aristotle thought of happiness in terms of _____ .
a. pleasure
b. function
c. the Ideal
d. power
43. The _____ soul registers information regarding the form
of things but does not absorb or become those things.
a. vegetative
b. masculine
c. feminine
d. sensitive
44. Human beings contain a _____ that includes the
nutritive and sensitive souls.
a. teleological soul
b. social capacity
c. rational soul
d. calculating mind
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45. Aristotle identified eudaimonia with _____ .
a. a life of pleasure and ease
b. any form of happiness
c. a full and vigorous life
d. a life devoted to philosophy and intellectual virtues
46. For Aristotle, _____ is that at which all things aim.
a. the good
b. wisdom
c. peace of mind
d. the mean
47. In Aristotelian terms, happiness is _____ .
a. the ability to satisfy all of one s desires
b. a product of the wisdom of not having desires
c. the state of actualizing a thing s function
d. entirely a matter of character
48. Entelechy _____ .
a. is determined by the individual
b. is not determined by the individual
c. may or may not be determined by the individual,
depending on the entelechy
d. is none of these
49. Teleological thinking is _____ .
a. a way of understanding a thing in terms of its
ultimate goal
b. based on personal experience of the Good
c. always scientific
d. concerned only with ethical issues
50. Adulthood is the _____ of infancy.
a. eudaimonia
b. contradiction
c. telos
d. minos
51. Eudaimonia is usually translated as _____ .
a. life
b. happiness
c. virtue
d. purpose
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52. Eudaimonia implies _____ .
a. simply existing, surviving at all costs
b. being fully alive as opposed to merely existing
c. a life of pleasure
d. that each person defines his or her happiness
53. According to Aristotle, the good life _____ .
a. is a process
b. is a static condition
c. requires wealth and social influence
d. is relative
54. _____ is the Greek term for wisdom as moderation.
a. Telos
b. Eudaimonia
c. Sophrosyne
d. Entelechy
55. Aristotle characterized moral virtue as _____ .
a. drawing the bow
b. holding the reins
c. avoiding scandal
d. hitting the mark
56. Aristotle used the term _____ to refer to the overall nature or
tone of a person s habits.
a. moderation
b. style
c. character
d. form
57. According to Aristotle, moral virtue comes to us as a
result of _____ .
a. luck
b. habit
c. intelligence
d. culture
58. According to Aristotle, moral virtue requires _____ .
a. money
b. action
c. religion
d. higher education
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59. Aristotle characterized moral virtue as _____ .
a. a gift from the gods
b. that at which all things aim
c. a mean between two extremes
d. the highest excellence
60. According to Aristotle, vice takes two forms: _____
and _____ .
a. good/evil
b. mental/physical
c. social/individual
d. deficiency/excess
61. According to Aristotle, happiness is _____ .
a. based chiefly on luck
b. a by-product of living a well-balanced life
c. the reward of striving for excellence
d. the right of all creatures
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Chapter 6
THE NATURALIST: ARISTOTLE
1. Compare and contrast naturalism and idealism.
2. Explain what Aristotle meant by matter and form.
3. Using the example of a wooden bed, provide an account of
Aristotle s four causes.
4. What is entelechy, and how is it significant to Aristotle s ethics,
specifically to his theory of virtue and happiness?
5. Describe the hierarchy of souls and explain how it relates to
Aristotelian self-realization.
6. Discuss Aristotle s use of the term happiness. Contrast it with
contemporary notions of happiness. Which do you think is more
realistic? Healthier? Why? *
7. What is the principle of the mean? Give one or two examples of
using it to evaluate a course of action or moral choice. How do
character and habit affect happiness and virtue according to
Aristotle? Explain. *
8. Compare and contrast the Confucian (Chapter 1) and
Aristotelian mean in terms of each philosopher s understanding of
virtue. *
9. Critics accuse Aristotle of circular reasoning when he attempts
to identify goodness by first looking at the good man. Explain what
they mean. How does Aristotle attempt to solve the problem of
studying virtue objectively? Does his solution work, or are the
critics correct? Explain. *
10. Compare and contrast classical Aristotelian self-realization with
contemporary notions of self-realization. Be specific. Assess the
merits of both views. *
11. The modern self, it seems, is set free. The Aristotelian self is
crafted. Explain fully. *
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CHAPTER 6 ANSWERS