(October 12, 2021 at 5:54 pm)HappySkeptic Wrote: According to Nussbaum,
Aristotle's 4 types of causes:
material cause - made of a certain material
formal explanation - structure
efficient explanation - environment
final cause - teleological (end). Purpose and function of living things -- they continue to grow towards their natural condition.
Quoting this because I think this is a decent summary of the four causes. I've been thinking a bit about these, and the topic has reemerged in the thread, so here are my thoughts:
I think modern science could be made analogous with these four causes. Chemistry could elaborate on the material cause. What we know about immutable physical laws could elaborate on the efficient and formal causes. But what modern physicists have zero need for is the final cause. Because the phenomenon (let's say a tree growing from a sapling into adulthood) is sufficiently explained by the other three causes. It's not like the final cause is wrong per se. Just superfluous in the final analysis.
Anyway. That's what I was thinking.