Aristotle's Four Causes

This book examines Aristotle's four causes (material, formal, efficient, and final), offering a systematic discussion of the relation between form and matter, causation, taxonomy, and teleology. The overall aim is to show that the four causes form a system, so that the form of a natural thing relates to its matter as the final cause of a natural process relates to its efficient cause. Aristotle's Four Causes reaches two novel and distinctive conclusions. The first is that the formal cause or essence of a natural thing is not a property of this thing but a generic natural thing. The second is that the final cause of a process is not its purpose but the course that processes of its kind typically take.

List of contents

Acknowledgements - Introduction - Aristotle's Four Causes - Two Epistemic Directions of Fit - Tode, Ti, Toionde - The Inseparability of Matter - Types and Classes - Essences vs. Properties - Causation - Causal Processes - Basic and Derived Final Causes - Teleological Reasoning - Conclusion - Bibliography - Index.

About the author

Boris Hennig is Associate Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Ryerson University in Toronto. He earned his PhD from Universität Leipzig. His research focuses on metaphysics, logic, and epistemology.

Summary

This book examines Aristotle's four causes (material, formal, efficient, and final cause), offering a systematic discussion of the relation between form and matter, causation, taxonomy, and teleology.

Product details

• Authors: Boris Hennig
• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.01.2018
• EAN: 9781433159299
• ISBN: 978-1-4331-5929-9
• No. of pages: 280
• Dimensions: 150 mm x 20 mm x 225 mm
• Weight: 484 g
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; History of Ideas, PHILOSOPHY / General, Simpson, Philosophy, boris, Religion & beliefs, hennig, Popular philosophy, Philosophical traditions and schools of thought, Aristotle, Meagan, Aristotle's