Talk it out...or write it out I guess.

For this blog I thought I might just talk out some things that I'm studying for the exam to kind of kill two birds with one stone.

First I've started with substance of course, and that it is a cause of what something is, or the characteristics of what makes it what it is. 
-Core of what something is and exists in this world
-The definition of substance comes from secondary source because you cannot get a definition from a particular because attributes can get in the way of the definition
-Substance is physical, non transcendent and made of natural things.
-Composed of matter and form:

Matter-is perceived through our senses and is a kind of "stuff" things are made of

Form- The shape that matter takes. All matter has a perception of a form. Form is more the "___ness" that something has that cannot be differentiated into something else.
-To Aristotle, form is something that cannot be detached from matter, where as to Plato, Form is in its own world of existence and is more abstract.
- Aristotle's idea of form also that each form has something in common with similar objects, while Plato's view is that Forms are their own entity that cannot have comparisons.

Since Aristotle was an advocate of the belief of change, he studied the way that things come into existence and develop. In order to understand the change he came up with the 4 causes:
-Formal- Blueprint of the substance, primary substance
-Efficient- Who or what made it?
-Material- What is it made of?
-Final- Purpose, none of the other causes would be in existence if not for this cause. (teleological view, telos)

Another way of looking at change involves potentiality and actuality:
Matter-potentiality
Form-actuality

Kind of cyclical, one cannot exist without the other. (goes for matter and form, and potentiality and actuality)

Souls:
Another topic that Aristotle and Plato didn't agree on
Aristotle viewed the souls as an active living force and that their were different capacities in different living beings:
Nutritive- plants, reproduce
Perceptive- Animals, reproduce,  self movement, emotions
Rational-humans, reproduce, movement, emotions, reason (rationality)

Each capacity (obviously) carries the qualities of the previous one and then some.

Going more into Aristotle's idea of forms:
-Lower case "f" because inseparable from matter
-everything exists and is not "other worldly"
-commonalities with other similar objects is what makes it a form... depends on this fact
-"___ness" concept

Aristotle's problems with Plato's Forms
-Other worldly forms, where the other world has to actually be explained
-Plato's Forms do not change, where as Aristotle's do
-Aristotle believed in Empiricism, which meant knowing through observation, learning, experience...not something you already knew

Phew! That was a good recap of the most confusing things. If anyone has read this far, that's amazing.
Left out primary and secondary substances just because I have studied it so hard I felt no need to reiterate.