 So we've been talking about substances and that substance is a common as a composite of matter and form so That's one part of the answer to the problem or the question of metaphysics is what does it mean to be? What does it mean to exist Aristotle and Aristotle's answer is to be a substance? so the next part of the question is Why? Why do these things exist? Now Aristotle's answer In part is is also going to answer why things change. So looking out here We have lots of substances and they're undergoing a lot of change Trees are undergoing change the grass the bushes. I'm undergoing change You know even just the fact that I'm moving around that's a kind of change and the question is what's going to account for that? Aristotle's answer is the four causes now Don't think of cause here the way that we think of cause we think of cause is something very mechanistic a transfer of energy You know dominoes falling over in sequence one domino knocking over another We think of cause as You know reactions action or reaction. It's not exactly what Aristotle has in mind When Aristotle talks about cause He's he means something more of what we would we would describe as explanation. So the why? Something exists. So when we so Aristotle talks about the four causes. He means something like the four whys You know before you get an Aristotle's case that was the original meaning Or the word that we derive that we now translate as cause we understand to be cause originally means something like explanation and specifically in a legal context So we have the four causes for Aristotle the formal the material the efficient and the final Which basically is What is it? What's it composed of? What brought it about and where's it going the formal and the material cause Pretty much guess that's the form and the matter. What kind of thing it is and and what composes it What's it made of so looking at this tree? Let's step this way looking at this tree right here. All right. We understand its form. It's a tree It's a cedar tree even more specifically and we look at its matter. What composes it bark wood sap Water minerals sunlight certain gases. All right. All these are involved and what composes that tree So you can understand the efficient cause basically is you know, what does where does this thing come from or from what? Does this thing come from so looking at these trees around us right now these trees did not suddenly just sprout from the ground They they did not just you know pop into existence in the middle air settle down and take root All right, these trees come from something You know these trees, you know most immediately were preceded by a seed But the seed comes from somewhere too, right that's namely the seed comes from other trees so the idea behind the fishing cause is That you know everything comes from something else Now you might wonder well, why are we doing this? Well remember? This is an idea that's real prevalent amongst the philosophers at the time. Thanks to primitides It's impossible that something comes from nothing Nothing is not causally efficacious Why because it's nothing it has neither a cause nor it's an effect So in this mindset all these things around us, you know, they come from something Trees come from other trees this earth Right all this ground comes from ground. It comes from somewhere Sky comes from something You know you and I we come from something they didn't just pop into existence The need a little trail. It's got some nice views down there You know this trail has a purpose It leads off to a destination. It has a route It's not just simply a trail to nowhere Well Even you'll identify in this trail part of what identifies this trail is where it goes What's its location? Why is it made that way? That's part of its its end its purpose As part of what helps us understand what this trail is as it heads off that way and actually loops back around the park That's that's an end. That's a purpose It's a function of it these trees Yeah, they have a purpose too They grow up Not down They grow slightly off to the side, but they don't just stick strictly to the side There is something of what it means to to function as a tree to be that tree Not just this definition or its essence. I mean that's part of it But there's something of what it means to be a healthy living tree. It has an end This tree these trees They will grow for a time and Then they will die and fall apart But that's its end. That's its purpose. It's fulfillment of what it is a tree that You know it's something that starts to grow You know might kind of sort of be a tree But then if it stops if it dies too soon, it was never fully Actualized as a tree and never reached its purpose its end This is kind of the idea of what it means to have a final cause What's the end What is the purpose of this thing? Final causes are Sometimes difficult to sort out you have to understand what a thing is before you Understand what its final causes was purposes Some things are easier than others. I mean especially when we're talking about objects made by people So this hat its end its function its purpose is really evident namely to provide shade Sunglasses the same thing to protect the eyes against sunlight clothing is Really kind of straightforward as to what its end is When you start getting to natural objects or you know objects that are not created by people well It gets a little fuzzier sometimes sometimes it's hard to tell You know even the Sun What is its end? Well One of one of things that's gonna happen to the Sun is that's eventually gonna blow up But in the meantime it does serve a purpose right it has a function and the solar system It keeps the planets in a certain orbit it provides energy for this planet for the various forms of life Now Aristotle looked on the world looked around in the world and he saw this happening all over the place because he Looked out into the world and saw purposes ends goals You know not necessarily you know the tree doesn't think to itself I want to be told no that's not what he's talking about All right. He's saying that There's something what it means to be a tree You know trees don't just start sprouting wings and start flapping away. No, that's not what happens with the tree a tree functions Has a goal and end of what it means to be a tree So this rounds out the four causes we have the formal and the material What kind of thing it is? What's it composed of? We have the efficient where it comes from and we have the final Where it's going so I'm not really able to be in the shot here because I kind of to zoom in on this little guy but this is a Cedar tree Right. It's kind of a sproutling here You can see Very sharp little needles It's still really young It's not tall at all you know get perspective. It's a little bit over my ankle. It's still a really young little cedar tree Now it is a tree right it has roots that You know genetically it's a tree. It has features of a tree But it's still really early on In terms of its end it has a long way to go as Many years left for this tree Before it fully is what it's supposed to be Like a pair that cedar tree we just looked at But this one right this one is much further Along the way to being a fully realized a fully actualized tree Right It's branches are thicker its trunk is thicker. It's fuller. It's got roots that are deeper down. It's higher It's further along in its process of being a tree That other one we looked at was Just kind of getting started This is the difference between potentiality and actuality That tree that we looked at had very had just a little bit of actuality compared to this one Actuality is the extent to which something has fulfilled its final cause its purpose its end its goal Potentiality is how much further it has to go Now we don't mean by potentiality You know just the various things that it can do right that's the way that we use the term now potentiality means How for for Aristotle how much further it has to go? how much further it has to be Completed to be that the thing that it is It's not as if this tree doesn't have any potentiality. It's just but it's just further along it has less potentiality Than that younger one that we looked at Actuality is the extent to which something has fulfilled its final cause and Potentiality is the extent to which it you know it has to go has yet to go right as much more to do Aristotle will love this place He loved to watch and observe things. He loved nature Now one of the things that he noticed Is that things? Grow for a while they begin they grow for a while They reach their fullest and then they die and they degrade that's kind of What happens with every natural object on the planet including you and I? So when we when we're talking about this potentiality and actuality He has something very real in mind once something has reached its potential once it's You know when it says has no more potential When it's it's completeness when it's at its end That's when it starts to cease to be Once you once it's achieved that goal that purpose it's done and The idea behind you know being fully actualized Right having no more potential means that you it's done everything that it can do everything is supposed to do So this is one consequence of this idea potential in actuality is that once The potential is fulfilled once there's no more potential. It's fully actualized. It can be No more It can't be anything more than its potential Aristotle draw some pretty significant conclusions from this idea of potentiality and actuality. So just look at these trees around us, right? These trees Can only do so much They can process oxygen They can take up nutrients from the ground. They can use water to live and You know they can make baby trees To their own reproductive processes. They can make baby trees now because of the kind of thing it is It can only confer so much being right these trees Can only make other trees Because of the kind of thing it is We wouldn't expect a tree to You know drop a seed and that seed sprouts into a dog Right that would be weird That's not the you know the natural order of things. That's not what we see You know similarly dogs do not give birth to trees That's not the kind of being that it is I can't confer that being onto something else so The point that Aristotle is making here is that whatever brings about This being Can't be less of a being Then what it already exists So looking at these trees here What brings about these trees Must have at least as much being as these trees We're talking about when we're talking about dogs Whatever brings about dogs Must have at least as much being as a dog When we're talking about any creature that has to have at least as much being as that creature same thing with human beings Right, whatever brings about a human being must have at least as much being as a human So the point that Aristotle is making here is that whatever exists Has to have been brought about by something with at least as much existence as that at least as much It's really quite gorgeous out here Now you may not like Aristotle's conclusion here, but what would I mean to reject it? All right, so he has this idea of Things with limits, right? There's limits on the being and this is real Intuitive and we talked about this before one of things that makes a thing a thing is its limits You know just start looking at the categories with that's those are lots of limits quantity, right? Some of these trees are 20 feet high. They're not 50 feet high. I'm only about 6 feet high I'm not 20 feet high You know to have for a thing to have limits means it has a limit on being it's only so much being there So, you know some you know some things have like this much being right and then some things have this much being okay, now If you reject Aristotle's idea That whatever Exists has to come for something with at least as much being then you're saying that sometimes things with this much being Produce things with this much being Well, now there's a real difference in the you know kind of amount of being So just trying to you know work my hands out here, right? There's about this much difference of being That came from from here Well, where did this Come from Where did that existence come from? If you say it came from here from this object over here Then you're saying that there's a whole lot of being namely this much. There's a whole lot of being That came from nothing Right because it only has this much being Where did the rest come from? Where did that rest come from? It didn't come from anywhere Because there's only so much existence right here so if you reject Aristotle's idea that Things have to come from something with at least as much being Then you're saying there's a lot of existence That comes from nothing And now we're back in that weird seemingly impossible scenario where something comes from nothing a lot of steps along the way And I keep progressing on up to my goal Trying to get to the top Well, we're pretty much all doing that We're trying to get to that goal Trying to be this fulfillment though we've been talking about this idea of potentiality and actuality and Aristotle has told us that That Everything Comes from something with at least as much being as a self these trees Come from something that's at least as real as the tree. I Come from something at least as real as I am now. What does this mean? Well One way to start thinking about this you start following the implications is to say that For everything that exists There's something at least as great as it Well, there has been Something at least as great as it. Can we keep going with this? Well Suppose we keep going for the trees right For every tree There's been something at least as great as the tree Well, then for that great thing There's been something as least as great as that thing and so on and so forth For people there's been something as least as great as the person So we keep carrying the implications and pretty soon What we have is we start generating an infinite number of things And not only an infinite number of things But an infinite number of things that have existed So there's there's kind of chain Well, can we continue with that is it possible that there's an infinite number of Things where we're talking about this infinite regress of being for every being there's something at least is great If not greater than that thing Well Aristotle doesn't think so and you know, we probably shouldn't either because if there is this infinite regress of being Then we're saying First of all, we're saying that an infinite number of things have already existed. That gets a little dicing But even more to the point we're saying that we're at the end of an infinite chain of things Well, that's impossible You can't be at the end of an infinite chain. That's like Right, you know, that's like being at the last number. There isn't a last number So if there isn't an end, excuse me, if there isn't an infinite Then there has to be something that's at least as great as Everything else. All right Well, can we put a limited number on that? All right, let's say Greatness Let's say we start measuring units of greatness and we're pretty great So around a 50 and trees are pretty good too, but they're not as great as us. So they're around a fit 30 All right. So what number would this greatness be? Well, let's say 10,000. Let's put 10,000 well, can that thing be the source of Everything can that thing be the great the greatest thing of all the things well It has a limit It's 10,000 is its limit. Well then Where's you know kind of the remaining greatness? Where did it come from? Well If we keep asking if we keep pushing on that question and we're like, well, what is the 10,000 and first greatest thing? Right? Well, we're right back in that chain again Well, that chain doesn't work So, you know, we can't have the infinite chain. We can't say that there's a finite amount of greatness For this greatest thing So what do we have? Well, we have that this greatest thing whatever it is has limitless being There is no finitude to it. It has no limits Ironically enough, it has no more potentiality either. It's limitless Potentiality means that there's some degree to which it has it has not achieved its existence Well, there is no degree That it's its existence. It's fully completed Can we say, you know, okay ask the question. Well, where did that come from? Well, no It's not going to make any sense because it's limitless being So this is what Aristotle calls the unmoved mover Now the unmoved mover since it is this limitless being Right, it's the greatest thing of all They nothing can be greater than it Well, what we strive for When we're on our way to our own actuality is we're striving for this greatness now. We're limited. We can only get so great But We're always striving for this greatness and since we're always striving for this greatness We're always striving for this completeness of being What we're doing It's climbing to the top Right, we can only get so far, but that's what we're aiming at. We're aiming for this fullness this completeness of being So this unmoved mover, it's unmoved Because there's no greater note that it can't be any greater. All right, it's achieved all and it's limitless being But it's a mover Because we're striving for it All things are striving for this greatness of being unfortunately My striving has many more steps to go