Preview

Aristotle's Final Cause

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1569 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Aristotle's Final Cause
1) Analyse and comment on Physics 194b18-195a3:
“Knowledge is the object of our inquiry, and men do not think they know a thing till they have grasped the 'why' of (which is to grasp its primary cause). So clearly we too must do this as regards both coming to be and passing away and every kind of physical change, in order that, knowing their principles, we may try to refer to these principles each of our problems.
In one sense, then, (1) that out of which a thing comes to be and which persists, is called 'cause', e.g. the bronze of the statue, the silver of the bowl, and the genera of which the bronze and the silver are species.
In another sense (2) the form or the archetype, i.e. the statement of the essence, and its genera, are called 'causes' (e.g. of the octave the relation of 2:1, and generally number), and the parts in the definition.
Again (3) the primary source of the change or coming to rest; e.g. the man who gave advice is a cause, the father is cause of the child, and generally what makes of what is made and what causes change of what is changed.
Again (4) in the sense of end or 'that for the sake of which' a thing is done, e.g. health is the cause of walking about. ('Why is he walking about?' we say. 'To be healthy', and, having said that, we think we have assigned the cause.) The same is true also of all the intermediate steps which are brought about through the action of something else as means towards the end, e.g. reduction of flesh, purging, drugs, or surgical instruments are means towards health. All these things are 'for the sake of' the end, though they differ from one another in that some are activities, others instruments. This then perhaps exhausts the number of ways in which the term 'cause' is used.”

In this essay I will begin by extracting the arguments from the extract, outlining Aristotle’s explanation of the four ‘causes’ and arguing why Aristotle has reasons for believing this. In order to achieve a considered and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In this paper I will be arguing against Thomas Aquinas’ fifth way, a teleological argument supporting the existence of God. Aquinas’ philosophical argument rests primarily on a claim about the explanation for processes, their origins, and ends. I will try to combat his conclusion that there must be an intelligent being that designed and guides all things to their ends. This will be done through referencing the science of Darwinian Evolution. I will then build upon this fact, ultimately producing an inductive, and hopefully coherent, argument. Since there are probably multiple instances of processes not being guided by an intelligent source, there’s most likely not a being in which all natural things are guided to their ends.…

    • 682 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    St. Thomas Aquinas Summary

    • 1880 Words
    • 8 Pages

    All things have a common origin, a common beginning. In his Quinque viæ, St. Thomas Aquinas discussed about the existence of a higher divine being in the form of five points: the unmoved mover; the first cause; the argument from contingency; the argument from degree; and the “argument from design” idea.…

    • 1880 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The efficient cause – the ‘how’ the object came into being, i.e. the builders, architects, contractors, etc., that caused the house to come into being.…

    • 1179 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Reader! Doesn’t it enthrall one that a single word could bifurcate scholars and create factions amongst the erudite. ¿Por qué (why?) there must be a reason and there is! The answer is simple yet rational: Perspective. Albert Einstein,…

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aristotle's Argument

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Page

    What is a good argument? Aristotle’s was the first person to have a formal theory for argument. He states that an argument is “When, certain things being so, something else results from these by their being so (either generally or for the most part) – there (in the Topics) this is called deduction, here it is called enthymeme” (Rhetoric I.2, 1356b16–18). It’s very interesting how Aristotle’s saw an argument from very different ways. In my opinion an argument is just the view of things from different perspective. I can’t understand how he can relate many words and concepts to this simple word. As Dr. King ask in lecture, what is a good argument? Is the big question. He combined fallacies, validity and induction to create a good…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Aristotle's Four Causes

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher and empiricist, he believed in sense experience, as well as student to Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. Aristotle understood that the world around us is transient, impermanent. He believed that everything can be explained with his four causes and in order for humanity to understand the world we needed to use them. The four causes are Aristotle’s way of explaining the existence of an object, with the ‘final cause’ being the most important aspect of his theory as it gave the best explanation of an object. The final cause is the theory that all objects have an ultimate purpose for their existence, an important part of what it is.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Aristotle`S Casualty

    • 4676 Words
    • 19 Pages

    This insistence on the doctrine of the four causes as an indispensable tool for a successful investigation of the world around us explains why Aristotle provides his reader with a general account of the four causes. This general account is found, in almost the same words, in…

    • 4676 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Types of Essay Writing

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In Cause & effect essay writing you have to talking about a troubled with why things…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Uniformitarianism History

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages

    1st -That the land on which we rest is not simple and original, but that it is a composition, and had been formed by the operation of second causes.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    BIO120 Ulife Study Guide

    • 10131 Words
    • 41 Pages

    - [Verb] The evolutionary process that leads to the origin and maintenance of such traits…

    • 10131 Words
    • 41 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Human Resource Management

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages

    7. Cause and Effect - Assuming that the effect is related to a cause because the events occur together.…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evaluating Aristotle’s 4 causes shows that there are strengths and weaknesses of this theory from Plato and Aristotle. Both views include strengths and weaknesses, with Aristotle’s theory. Plato’s cave analogy makes sense as it bears with reality to a certain extent but although this is true the cave allegory is just to simplistic for the four causes to be justified therefore contradicts the argument for the four causes. Plato also argues that pure reason does not exist.…

    • 414 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    National Integration

    • 1446 Words
    • 6 Pages

    25 Orissa Review * January - 2006 The 42nd amendment came into force on December 18,1976. The preamble as amended runs as follows : "We, the people of India having solemnly resolved to Constitute India into a Soverign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic and to secure all its citizens" Justice-social, economic and political, equality of states and opportunity and to promote among them all, Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and unity and integrity of the Nation. In our constituent Assembly the twenty sixth day of November, 1949 also hereby adopt, enact and give ourselves this constitution fundamental duties.…

    • 1446 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The third cause takes the formal shape of the object or what the object actually looks…

    • 683 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    2) A body of knowledge and explanatory concepts that seek to increase our understanding ("explain") a major phenomenon of nature (Moore, 1984).…

    • 1002 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics