Aristotle on Teleology

by Johnson, Monte Ransome

• ISBN13: 9780199238507
• ISBN10: 0199238502
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-03-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Monte Johnson examines the most controversial aspects of Aristiotle'snatural philosophy: his teleology. Is teleology about causation or explanation?Does it exclude or obviate mechanism, determinism, or materialism? Is it focusedon the good of individual organisms, or is god or man the ultimate end of allprocesses and entities? Is teleology restricted to living things, or does itapply to the cosmos as a whole? Does it identify objectively existent causes inthe world, or is it merely a heuristic for our understanding of other causalprocesses? Johnson argues that Aristotle's aporetic approach drives a middlecourse between these traditional oppositions, and avoids the dilemma, frequentlyurged against teleology, between backwards causation and anthropomorphism.Although these issues have been debated with extraordinary depth by Aristotlescholars, and touched upon by many in the wider philosophical and scientificcommunity as well, there is no comprehensive historical treatment of the issue. Aristotle is commonly considered the inventor of teleology, although the preciseterm originated in the eighteenth century. If teleology means the use of endsand goals in natural science, then Aristotle was rather a critical innovator ofteleological explanation. Teleological notions were widespread among hispredecessors, but Aristotle rejected their conception of extrinsic causes suchas mind or god as the primary causes for natural things. Aristotle's radicalalternative was to assert nature itself as an internal principle of change andan end, and his teleological explanations focus on the intrinsic ends of naturalsubstances - those ends that benefit the natural thing itself. Aristotle's use of ends was subsequently conflated with incompatible'teleological' notions, including proofs for the existence of a providential ordesigner god, vitalism and animism, opposition to mechanism and non-teleologicalcausation, and anthropocentrism. Johnson addresses these misconceptions throughan elaboration of Aristotle's methodological statements, as well as anexamination of the explanations actually offered in the scientific works.

Author Biography

Monte Ransome Johnson is professor at Saint Louis University, Missouri

Table of Contents

List of Tables	p. ix
Abbreviations	p. x
Introduction	p. 1
Teleology as a Critical Explanatory Framework
Historical Background to the Interpretation of Aristotle's Teleology	p. 15
Greek, Arabic, and Latin commentary	p. 16
Scholasticism and the scientific revolution	p. 23
Natural theology and the critique of teleology	p. 30
Theophrastus and teleological aporiai	p. 35
Preliminary Study of Aristotle's Causes	p. 40
Responsibility, blame, and cause	p. 40
The four kinds of causes	p. 42
Knowledge, demonstration, and causal explanation	p. 49
Demonstration through 'the cause for the sake of which'	p. 52
Temporal priority	p. 56
Integrating causal explanations	p. 56
Explanatory and non-explanatory causes	p. 59
Teleological Notions	p. 64
The cause for the sake of which	p. 64
Nothing in vain	p. 80
End, limit, and the complete	p. 82
Function, activity, and the thing in a state of completion	p. 85
Axiological terminology: the good, fine, etc.	p. 90
Teleological Dialectic	p. 94
Luck (Empedocles)	p. 95
Necessity and Spontaneity (Democritus)	p. 104
Intelligence (Anaxagoras and Diogenes of Apollonia)	p. 112
God (Xenophon, Socrates)	p. 115
Form (Plato)	p. 118
Teleological Explanations in Natural Science
Teleology and Elements	p. 131
Natural change and motion	p. 132
Celestial elemental locomotion	p. 136
Terrestrial elemental locomotion	p. 140
Elemental transmutation	p. 145
Meteorology	p. 149
Teleology and Organisms i: General Principles	p. 159
Reasoning from phenomenal effects to explanatory causes	p. 160
Genetic order and explanatory order	p. 165
Survival and reproduction as the basis of explanation in the life sciences	p. 171
The insufficiency of necessity alone to account for living natures	p. 178
Mechanism, reduction, and heuristic	p. 182
Teleology and Organisms ii: Specific Explanations	p. 188
Normal Cases	p. 188
Abnormal cases	p. 198
Animal behavior	p. 204
Teleology and Humans	p. 211
Deliberation, intention, art, and science	p. 212
Ultimate ends of humans	p. 217
Different ends of humans and other organisms	p. 222
The use of other living things as instruments	p. 229
Social organisms and organizations	p. 237
Teleology and the Cosmos	p. 247
The primary cause of natural motion	p. 248
The most general teleological explanation of motion	p. 253
No 'teleological' proof for the existence of god in Aristotle	p. 258
Locomotion as the paradigm of change for the sake of something	p. 263
A final aporia: how does the good exist in the universe?	p. 271
Conclusion	p. 287
Bibliography	p. 295
Index of Texts and Commentaries	p. 311
Index of Names	p. 321
Index of Subjects	p. 325
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