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During the semester we have focused on a number of themes. Explain how the problem of one and the many, the issue of change and stability, and the distinction between appearance and reality as well as knowledge and opinion, play a role in the thinking of any three philosophers we have studied?

User Albita
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Final answer:

Plato addresses themes through the theory of Forms, positing a real world of truth versus the impermanent sensed world. Aristotle explains existence and change with his four causes, emphasizing logical reasoning. Parmenides views change as illusory and reality as unchanging.

Step-by-step explanation:

The philosophical themes of the problem of one and the many, the issue of change and stability, and the distinction between appearance and reality, as well as knowledge and opinion, are central in the work of many Greek philosophers. Among them, we can discuss the contributions of Plato, Aristotle, and Parmenides to these philosophical questions.

Plato

Plato grapples with the problem of appearance and reality through his theory of Forms. He proposes that the world we perceive with our senses is but a shadow of the real world of Forms, which represents truth and permanence against the changing and imperfect physical world. In terms of the one and the many, Plato points to the realm of Forms as the source of unity from which the many particulars of the sensed world derive their characteristics.

Aristotle

Conversely, Aristotle addresses these themes with a more empirical approach. His four causes (material, formal, efficient, and final) are used to explain the existence and change of objects. For Aristotle, the essence of an object (its form) provides stability amidst the change of its material substrate. He differentiates between knowledge, which is certain, and opinion, which is not, grounding the former in logical reasoning and empirical observation.

Parmenides

Parmenides claims that change is illusory, advocating for an unchanging reality. He positions himself firmly on one side of the problem of one and the many, asserting that only 'the One' is real and that multiplicity and change are merely appearances.

User Dustin Campbell
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