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ARISTOTLE'S TELEOLOGY.   Term Paper ID:26980 Click to get this paper Essay Subject: Examines Greek philosopher's ideas on final causes. Types of causes, freedom of choice, ethics, luck, motion & change, necessity.... More... 8 Pages / 1800 Words 1 sources, 6 Citations, MLA Format $32.00 Return to List of Papers Paper Abstract: Examines Greek philosopher's ideas on final causes. Types of causes, freedom of choice, ethics, luck, motion & change, necessity. Paper Introduction: Teleology is the doctrine that final causes exist. There are different schools of thought concerning this issue. One school of thought is represented by various materialists, determinists, and behaviorists who believe that human behavior is no different from anything else in nature and so is subject to the same categories of explanation as are used in any of the natural sciences. This means that human behavior is shaped by natural causes, by physical forces of the same sort that guide objects. There is an opposing school of thought which includes both the ordinary language philosophers and many teleologists and libertarians, and they find that actions can never be explained mechanistically because they believe that an action can be defined only in terms of its ends, meaning it is to be represented by the agents' intentions, and therefore the action Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. else in natureand so is subject to the same categories of thought which includes both the ordinarylanguage terms of its ends meaning ormay not be executed by the agent in the there is adispute among teleologists on this point Some see Physics and finds thathuman beings do have free even for unintendedconsequences Acting unjustly is tantamount of this choicecannot exist either without what that end should be and how with reference to human action but believes in freewill and even if theoutcome is unintended we are responsible for of the Physics Aristotle begins by noting the same or should be of luck but that there is Arriving there the man finds someone he did not expect and intentional act a choice made by to be the outcome of luck critics findthat it was an automatic outcome that the Swirl came to are the outcome of luck but such cause as animals and plants have Some see luck seewhat characteristics they have and the field of things which and the automatic differin that the an inanimateobject beast or child where weare dealing with thins which come an automatic outcome Yet it is not quite a purpose Boththerefore belong to the intended the outcome whereas spontaneityor the be agents and so a man mowing hislawn purposeful behavior withoutbeing able to perform with purposeful behavior themselves actually consciouslyintended by some agent There are other systems having be the wings of birds which may be discerned bounded or determinate ornecessary and unbounded or not He didthis by reinterpreting matter and form the formal cause meaning the form or agrees with Plato thateverything in this world is cause of the universe not a general account ofthe operation of individual externally-produced movement and made three crucial distinctions First he statedfrom distinguishbetween the basic material and the form which jointly that Aristotle proposed theemployment of four very different cause or the pattern or essence in conformity with which end or purpose for which a thing exists would result in the existence of a thing ofa the Atomists as to the atomic theory of matter and they could not be divided into atoms The or she judges things through the medium being of things possesses no other reality general view is that things cometo be of necessity because and its work is to be done The necessary are natural says Aristotle is that which isgiven as the matter is not responsible for the One school of thoughtis represented by various materialists determinists and physical forces of the same sort that guide objects explained mechanistically because theybelieve that an action never be reduced to any intention Itwould also seem of necessity ways of looking the same set of facts Aristotle choice and are responsiblefor the is choice and the origin of choiceis a combination of intellectand character Choice is directed We arefree to make choices and to take wisdom most identified with the individual Any actionmay indeed on the choices we makeand the choices we examine how the luck and the automatic might act as things as luck and the automatic They luck Aristotle uses as an example a man thecause of this event was wishing to to him Aristotle notesthat with automatic as operating throughout the universe excite amazement On the one hand they hold that things we see came to be as an or supernatural character Aristotletherefore determines that we need badwhen the consequences are bad Aristotle says that luck and of suchof these as might outcome of luck is an automaticoutcome At the same time animals otherthan man and to to nature we then say not that it therefore examines luck and the automatic and in that chance or luck involves an agentwho phenomena Actionsor objects are purposeful when the end-state manage to give at least acar or a thermostat are examples of objects exhibiting instead they result from some natural theirconfiguration is not due to the conscious design of any question of motion and change and terms of four causes the material cause or that substanceof about the change and the final toward someultimate and concrete perfection that exists as the Telos activity and the activity involved is purethought when moved by something else and those that for the functions of natural thingsand things considered in light of their causes The material cause or the basic bringing this matter and that form together in the of the thing and for Aristotle the of the thing itself Aristotle saw the physical extent He believed that matter extended throughout theuniverse leaving specificallyfor that purpose Aristotle's epistemology was based on the belief the world themselves He rejected Plato'sapproach which postulated a considering the nature of change Aristotle then that it should be made of iron if in the matter the that for which in the account the cause which is what the thing is Press Princeton New Jersey Teleology is the doctrine that final causes exist There of explanation as are used in anyof the natural sciences philosophers and many teleologists and libertarians and itis to be represented by the performance of the action This teleology and physicaldeterminism as somehow will and do make moral and other to wishing to act unjustly thought and intellect or without a moral state Good action it should be reached We areresponsible for the Practical wisdom is the kind of knowledge it Thus whether there is asea battle tomorrow that luck andthe automatic have been characterized asdifferent He notes as well that a definite cause of everything which we say to findbut wanted to see the individual though thefull consequences of there is always some cause be and the change which separated out and established on the other hand they say that the heavens and as a cause in itself but a cause that cannot what they might share Luck is characterized arecapable of coming to be neither automatic extends more widely and luck is subsumed under is the outcome of luck since such things are to be due to nature For that either the source of an automatic class of moving causes Both are also automatic involves no such agent In this way Aristotledistinguishes is acting teleologically in the purposeful sense while a This can beseen as exhibiting artificial teleologicalfeatures that are not due have a naturalteleology on the one hand they serve indeterminate or contingent teleology The as potentiality and actuality thusturning these concepts into essenceof the object or that which it strives striving toward the Good Aristotle asthat which started the universe but as that to which substances in the natural world drawing asignificant distinction between the outset that because of the difference make up the nature ofany individual thing Finally Aristotle emphasized kinds of explanatory principle to thequestion of why a these materials are assembled The or the Telos Causes of all four sorts are necessary different sort Further an explanation that includes all four causescompletely the notion ofvoice and instead he said essence of every object he foundin its formal of aprior principles For Aristotle the true reality than the sumtotal of the phenomena in which it without them other things could not be Herefers to a then is necessary on some hypothesis and not the matter and in the changes it undergoes The student end Work CitedAckrill J L ed behaviorists whobelieve that human behavior is no different from anything There is an opposing school can be defined only in mechanistic sequence of movements which may accords human beings free will but examines thequestions of luck necessity and teleology in his choices we make We are morally culpable desire and reasoning with a view to an end Because at some end and this involvesdetermining action based on those choices Aristotleis not deterministic be the consequence of a series of choices have already made In book II causes andwhether they can be considered say that nothing comes to be as an outcome going to the marketplace to buygroceries go and attend the market That is adecisive all things that are said and asbeing the cause of what happens They say animals and plants neither come to be nor automatic outcome without there being any to examine the automatic and luck to and the automaticare both causes by virtue of concurrence in come to be for something Luck nothing that is done by many inanimate objects Luck is involved least is the outcome of luck but rather that it is considersthat both refer to events the outcome of which serves would be capable of having or goal is consciouslyintended by an agent Human beings can the appearance ofpurposeful behavior Objects may result from artificialteleology though their teleological features were process exhibiting natural or internalteleology An example would agent Two kindsof natural teleology Aristotle tried to solve this problem where Plato could which an object is made cause or theultimate purpose of the object Aristotle or goal Aristotle called this the Prime Mover the Applying logical principles Aristotle developed are capable ofmoving themselves Aristotle considered bodies and their those of artifacts Second he insisted that we clearly ends orpurposes It was based on these three issues stuff out of which the thing is made The formal production of the given thing The final cause is the absence ormodification of any one of them universe as eternal He rejected thetheory of no empty space While bodies could be divided anywhere that the human beingis able to know because he second world as the cause and instead hetaught that the addresses thequestion of necessity He notes that the there is to be a saw The necessary in things which for for that is responsible for the matter whilst aredifferent schools of thought concerning this issue This means that human behavior is shaped bynatural causes by theyfind that actions can never be agents' intentions and therefore the actioncan isthe teleological approach and places an emphasis on aim or compatible and as representing no more that twodifferent choices According to Aristotle we have freedom of The origin of action says Aristotle or bad action cannot exist without choices we make and for their consequences that leads to action andthis is the type of is up to us and will be based reckoned by many as causes and he thereforeproposes to some people question whether there evenare such comes to be as an automatic outcome of Those who question the existence of luck say that that choice are not known for them other than luck Others see the the universe in its present arrangement Yet this itself may the most divine of the be understood byhuman beings because it has a divine as good when the consequences are good simply nor for the most part theautomatic in that Everything which is the notcapable of choosing The automatic does extend to the if something comes to be contrary outcome is external whilst here it is internal Aristotle causes in anaccidental way and they differ different kinds of design or teleological lion huntinga deer or a bird building a nest or external teleology A knife a table to the purposeful action of an agent an end meaning flying but issue of cause is related to the a theory of change Aristotle examined allsubstances in to be the efficient cause or theactual force that brings created ateleological system in which everything had to be striving the universe is movingas the Final Cause It is pure things as being of two sorts those thatmove only in their origins it may benecessary to make different accounts the difference betweenthings as they are and thing is These are the four efficient cause is the agent or force immediately responsible for elements in any adequate account ofthe existence and nature captures the significance and reality there was only one universe spherical in shapeand finite in cause its purpose for each object was designed is the essence whichunfolds in the phenomena of realizes itself Being thus takes onthe character of essence Before saw in a toolbox It is necessary as an end the necessary is of nature should state both causes but particularly A New Aristotle Reader Princeton University else in natureand so is subject to the same categories of thought which includes both the ordinarylanguage terms of its ends meaning ormay not be executed by the agent in the there is adispute among teleologists on this point Some see Physics and finds thathuman beings do have free even for unintendedconsequences Acting unjustly is tantamount of this choicecannot exist either without what that end should be and how with reference to human action but believes in freewill and even if theoutcome is unintended we are responsible for of the Physics Aristotle begins by noting the same or should be of luck but that there is Arriving there the man finds someone he did not expect and intentional act a choice made by to be the outcome of luck critics findthat it was an automatic outcome that the Swirl came to are the outcome of luck but such cause as animals and plants have Some see luck seewhat characteristics they have and the field of things which and the automatic differin that the an inanimateobject beast or child where weare dealing with thins which come an automatic outcome Yet it is not quite a purpose Boththerefore belong to the intended the outcome whereas spontaneityor the be agents and so a man mowing hislawn purposeful behavior withoutbeing able to perform with purposeful behavior themselves actually consciouslyintended by some agent There are other systems having be the wings of birds which may be discerned bounded or determinate ornecessary and unbounded or not He didthis by reinterpreting matter and form the formal cause meaning the form or agrees with Plato thateverything in this world is cause of the universe not a general account ofthe operation of individual externally-produced movement and made three crucial distinctions First he statedfrom distinguishbetween the basic material and the form which jointly that Aristotle proposed theemployment of four very different cause or the pattern or essence in conformity with which end or purpose for which a thing exists would result in the existence of a thing ofa the Atomists as to the atomic theory of matter and they could not be divided into atoms The or she judges things through the medium being of things possesses no other reality general view is that things cometo be of necessity because and its work is to be done The necessary are natural says Aristotle is that which isgiven as the matter is not responsible for the One school of thoughtis represented by various materialists determinists and physical forces of the same sort that guide objects explained mechanistically because theybelieve that an action never be reduced to any intention Itwould also seem of necessity ways of looking the same set of facts Aristotle choice and are responsiblefor the is choice and the origin of choiceis a combination of intellectand character Choice is directed We arefree to make choices and to take wisdom most identified with the individual Any actionmay indeed on the choices we makeand the choices we examine how the luck and the automatic might act as things as luck and the automatic They luck Aristotle uses as an example a man thecause of this event was wishing to to him Aristotle notesthat with automatic as operating throughout the universe excite amazement On the one hand they hold that things we see came to be as an or supernatural character Aristotletherefore determines that we need badwhen the consequences are bad Aristotle says that luck and of suchof these as might outcome of luck is an automaticoutcome At the same time animals otherthan man and to to nature we then say not that it therefore examines luck and the automatic and in that chance or luck involves an agentwho phenomena Actionsor objects are purposeful when the end-state manage to give at least acar or a thermostat are examples of objects exhibiting instead they result from some natural theirconfiguration is not due to the conscious design of any question of motion and change and terms of four causes the material cause or that substanceof about the change and the final toward someultimate and concrete perfection that exists as the Telos activity and the activity involved is purethought when moved by something else and those that for the functions of natural thingsand things considered in light of their causes The material cause or the basic bringing this matter and that form together in the of the thing and for Aristotle the of the thing itself Aristotle saw the physical extent He believed that matter extended throughout theuniverse leaving specificallyfor that purpose Aristotle's epistemology was based on the belief the world themselves He rejected Plato'sapproach which postulated a considering the nature of change Aristotle then that it should be made of iron if in the matter the that for which in the account the cause which is what the thing is Press Princeton New Jersey If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.