1 / 7

Four Types of Explanation

Four Types of Explanation. -Aristotle By: Andrew Fernandez Marlon Baker. Main Argument of Aristotle. “It is plain then, that nature is a cause, a cause that operates for a purpose” (415).

nola
Download Presentation

Four Types of Explanation

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Four Types of Explanation -Aristotle By: Andrew Fernandez Marlon Baker

  2. Main Argument of Aristotle • “It is plain then, that nature is a cause, a cause that operates for a purpose” (415). • Aristotle explains how things come about, such as that in nature, and argues that these are the four ‘causes’ in which things come about. • Material Cause • Formal Cause • Efficient Cause • Final Cause

  3. Explanation of ‘Causes’ • Material Cause- that out of which a thing comes to be (414). (wood is the cause of a table) • Formal Cause- The form or original pattern is a cause (414). (The shape of a thing) • Efficient Cause- The primary source of something’s changing (414). (the father is the cause of the child)

  4. Cont’d • Final Cause- the end, or that for the sake of which something is cone is a cause (414). (Health is the cause of walk)

  5. Objections • “ It is absurd to suppose that the purpose is not present because we do not observe the agent deliberate” (415). • Interpretation: There is a purpose in everything, and if we do not find one then it is because we didn’t look hard enough. • Nihilism: The Philosophical doctrine that argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.

  6. Cont’d • It is said to be that Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi first introduced the term. • Nihilism basically argues the opposite of Aristotle’s way of thinking, in the sense that Nihilism is a way of thinking that there is no purpose for anything, whereas Aristotle argues that everything has a ‘cause’ so therefore everything has a purpose. German Philosopher 1973-1819

  7. Alternative • Alternate way of thinking is that maybe not quite everything serves a purpose in life • Example: Complaing serves no purpose in life whereas action does • Interpretation: Complaining gets you nowhere until you take action in an effort to make a difference towards whatever it is that you are complaining about.

More Related