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Final cause
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Final cause is one of Aristotle's four forms of causation (the others being material, formal, and efficient). It is defined as the purpose of something. For example, the final cause of a pen is writing.
In science, final causes contrast with mechanical causes, which in Aristotle's language, encompass material causes and efficient causes. Although science has historically focused mostly on material causes, there has been some discussion and exploration of final causes in a scientific context, especially when studying systems at a macroscopic level. The laws of thermodynamics can be interpreted as a final cause,[1] and this perspective is useful for explaining the spontaneous origin of new levels in a hierarchy.[2] Ecologist Robert Ulanowicz argues that positive feedback in ecosystems can have effects which appear at a local level to be the result of a final cause.[3] It has also been argued that Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection is an appeal to a final cause, and not a mechanical cause, and is thus teleological.[4]
- ^ J.S. Wicken, Causal Explanations in Classical and Statistical Thermodynamics, Philosophy of Science, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Mar., 1981), pp. 65-77
- ^ [1] S.N. Salthe, "The Spontaneous Origin of New Levels in a Scalar Hierarchy", Entropy 2004, 6, pp. 327-343
- ^ [2] R.E. Ulanowicz, Aristotelean Causalities in Ecosystem Development , Oikos, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Feb., 1990), pp. 42-48
- ^ [3] T.L. Short, Darwin's concept of final cause: neither new nor trivial, Biology & Philosophy, Springer Netherlands, ISSN: 0169-3867 (Print) 1572-8404 (Online), Volume 17, Number 3 / June, 2002, pp. 323-340
