Preview

Aristotle's Final Cause

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
418 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Aristotle's Final Cause
What philosophical issues arise around aristotles final cause when applied to human beings?
The final cause according to Aristotle is the purpose for an object, for example, the final purpose of a chair would be to sit. This is a straightforward principle when applied to man made objects, because they all have an obvious creator and that creator makes them for a purpose.

Aristotle also said that the final cause could be applied to natural things, like trees, animals and humans. This is where many people believe Aristotle made a fundamental mistake. How can you define the purpose of an animal or a tree? This causes a problem when you try to apply the final cause to human beings. The final cause would then imply that we have a specific
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Aristotle Notes on Four Causes and Prime Mover
    • 1179 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Aristotle Notes on Four Causes and Prime Mover

    The final cause – the purpose of the object, i.e. to provide shelter, warmth, comfort, safety.…

    • 1179 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparative essay describing the ethics of Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and Emmanuel Levinas.
    • 880 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Comparative essay describing the ethics of Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, and Emmanuel Levinas.

    Aristotle lived during the B.C. era and established the concept of teleological ethics. This means that ethics has a purpose or a reason. He stressed the concept of doctrine of the mean-- maintaining balance in one's actions. Additionally, he theorized the idea of developing virtuous habits to build good character as well as that happiness is the main goal of all human beings. He explained how reaching one's potential by living well and acting well will ultimately lead to happiness. Moreover, he stated one should base one's actions on reason and he introduced the concept that reason controls desire.…

    • 880 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Aristotle's Views on Causality
    • 1400 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Aristotle's Views on Causality

    Aristotle outlined four causes that established the end purpose of an object or action. They are as follows: the material cause, the efficient cause, the formal cause and the final cause. Aristotle believed that the final cause was different from the other three causes and was the most important of the four.…

    • 1400 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Aristotle: the Nicomachean Ethics
    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Aristotle: the Nicomachean Ethics

    In these two books, Aristotle talked about friendship. He started by stating what the three different types of friendship are. The first type is when it is based on utility. This type of friendship is all about getting a benefit from someone else, and it will change according to circumstances. If a person doesn’t get benefits from the other anymore, the friendship will cease to be present. Benefits don’t have to be the only ground for friendship of this type, but there are definitely clear benefits involved. One example of this type of friendship Aristotle gave was friendships with foreigners. The second type of friendship is based on pleasure. In this type, you find the other person entertaining, and it is more about the experience of being near the person than anything else. This type is common between young people because young people’s lives are regulated by feelings. These friendships come and go often, and the friend doesn’t bring much to the friendship. The last type of friendship is based on goodness. This is when two “good” people are friends for the sake of each other. Both people in this friendship wish for the good of the other, and this type of relationship is most durable. Aristotle considered this type to be the perfect friendship. He didn’t care for the first two types because they are both short-lived, and they are circumstantial (Pgs. 203-208).…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Empowering Aristotle Chapter 8 Summary
    • 83 Words
    • 1 Page

    Empowering Aristotle Chapter 8 Summary

    In Chapter 8, Empowering Aristotle, Flyvbjerg uses his views and the diverse perspectives of philosophers to broaden our understanding of “power”. We are encouraged to view power as an omnipresent dynamic entity that is a process, a support, and a strategy, among other things. As we work to connect these ideas to our current work or research interests, please discuss which ideas you relate to most or which ideas you identify with least. How could these ideas impact your current or future…

    • 83 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Aristotle Ethics
    • 1919 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Aristotle Ethics

    Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics provides a sensible account for what true moral virtue is and how one may go about attaining it. Aristotle covers many topics that help reach this conclusion. One of them being the idea of mean between the extremes. Although Aristotle provided a reliable account for many philosophers to follow, Rosalind Hursthouse along with many others finds lose ends and topics which can be easily misinterpreted in Aristotle's writing.…

    • 1919 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Social Responsibility
    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Social Responsibility

    In Aristotle’s theory of morality, Nicomachean Ethics, he surmises that all human activities aim at some end or good. There are three types of good, sensual (pleasure), political (noble virtues for citizens), of life of thought (contemplation) (Arthur & Scalet, 2009, p. 51). He states “every scientific inquiry, and similarly every action and purpose may be said to aim at some good”. What he is saying is that everything has an end point which is something good. Everything we want to accomplish is for some good. The ends are many, and he goes on to say the end of the medical art I health, the end of the shipbuilding is a vessel, the end of strategy is victory, and the end of economics is wealth. One piece, to point out is Aristotle states there is a final end. For example some may think of money as an end, however, without something to purchase, money is meaningless. Working for example is an action not a goal, work is not the good, so what is the supreme end, what are you working to attain? “Perhaps happiness is the supreme good” (Arthur & Scalet, 2009, p. 52).…

    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Aristotle Research Paper
    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Aristotle Research Paper

    He thought that each thing or event has more than one reason that helps to explain what, why, and where that thing or event is. Greek thinkers from earlier on thought that only one kind of cause could explain itself. Aristotle, on the other hand, said four could. The four causes he spoke of were: material cause, efficient cause, formal cause, and the final cause. For example, he would say that the material cause of a house is the supplies from which it was built. The efficient cause of the house would be the builder. The formal cause would be the shape the builder decided upon. The final cause would be the house's function, to be a home. Aristotle said that something could be understood more when its causes are in specific terms rather than in general ones. Therefore, Aristotle would say that it is more informative to know that a builder built the house rather than to know that it was built by a man. Even further, he would say that it was more informative to know who the builder was rather than just knowing that a builder built…

    • 767 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Aristotle's Legacy Research Paper
    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Aristotle's Legacy Research Paper

    “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” This just one of Aristotle’s famous quotes and is probably the most important of them all. Excellence isn’t an act it’s just a habit something you just do without thinking about the thing you’re excellent at. In the Leaving a Legacy unit, many social and historical movements, as well as people and legacies, have been explored. Some of these people are still going on or have left a legacy worth learning about, one of which is Aristotle. Aristotle is a Greek philosopher who is the icon of western philosophy who started out as a student of Plato to one of the most iconic philosophers ever.…

    • 655 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Death of Socrates
    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Death of Socrates

    “The Death of Socrates” was painted by a French painter . His name was Jacques Louis David. The painting represents the scene of the death of Greek philosopher Socrates. He was condemned to die by drinking hemlock for the expression of his ideas against those of Athens' and corrupting the minds of the youth. The painting also depicts both Plato and Crito, with the former sitting at the edge of the bed and the latter clutching the knee of Socrates. Socrates had the choice to go into exile and , hence, give up his philosophic vocation or be sentenced to death by drinking hemlock. Socrates chose death. In this painting, someone hands a confident Socrates the goblet of hemlock. Socrates' hand pointing to the heavens indicating his defiance of the gods and fearless attitude to his death.…

    • 785 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    The Kite Runner Research Paper
    • 2320 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The Kite Runner Research Paper

    Aristotle thinks that philosophy is not only to reveal the true nature of things but also explore the reason of them. Without knowing the primary cause of a thing, one cannot say that he has known a thing. He pointed out that causes of changes in things can be concluded in two kinds of reasons. They are the “apparent” reasons and the “essential” reasons.…

    • 2320 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparing Kant And Aristotle's Purpose
    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Comparing Kant And Aristotle's Purpose

    Aristotle believes that people's actions are governed through their desire to achieve happiness. According to Aristotle, the purpose of human life is by happiness through living your life entirely by your actions as an individual on…

    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Aristotle's View on the Nature of Human Life: Is It Correct?
    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Aristotle's View on the Nature of Human Life: Is It Correct?

    Is life really about the 'money', the 'cash', the 'hoes', who has the biggest gold chain or who drives the shiniest or fastest car, who sells the most albums or who has the most respect? Aristotle challenges views, which are similar to the ones held and shown by rap artists such as Jay-Z and the Notorious B.I.G., by observing that everything in the universe, including humans, has a telos, or goal in life. He states that the goal of a human life is to achieve happiness or eudaimonia. I believe that Aristotle is completely correct in his reasoning of the purpose of human nature. He even explains how happiness is different for every person, and each different type of person has a different idea of eudaimonia. He then goes on to talk about how a person must do all things in moderation, not doing the excess but at the same time doing just enough. This idea, called the "golden mean of moderation" was the backbone support to Aristotle's idea of human telos because it concluded that living a virtuous life must be the same for all people because of the way human beings are built.<br><br>Aristotle argued that the goal of human beings is happiness, and that we achieve happiness when we fulfill our function. Therefore, it is necessary to determine what our function is. The function of a thing, or its telos, is what it alone can do, or what it can do best. Like the function of the eye is to see, Aristotle declared the human being as the "rational animal" whose function is to reason. Thus, according to Aristotle, a happy life for human beings is a life governed by reason. <br><br>Aristotle believed that a person who has difficulty behaving ethically is morally imperfect. His ideal person practices the "golden mean of moderation." He believed that this moral virtue, of which happiness comes from, is a matter of avoiding extremes in behavior and finding the mean between them. Aristotle conceives happiness not primarily as an exercise of virtue in private or with friends, but as…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Aristotle's Argument
    • 157 Words
    • 1 Page

    Aristotle's Argument

    What is a good argument? Aristotle’s was the first person to have a formal theory for argument. He states that an argument is “When, certain things being so, something else results from these by their being so (either generally or for the most part) – there (in the Topics) this is called deduction, here it is called enthymeme” (Rhetoric I.2, 1356b16–18). It’s very interesting how Aristotle’s saw an argument from very different ways. In my opinion an argument is just the view of things from different perspective. I can’t understand how he can relate many words and concepts to this simple word. As Dr. King ask in lecture, what is a good argument? Is the big question. He combined fallacies, validity and induction to create a good…

    • 157 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Aristotle's Tragedy
    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Aristotle's Tragedy

    Humans tend to take comfort in the idea that their lives are not the most unfortunate, this makes tragedy a popular theme for many well written pieces. Although The Iliad is not considered a tragedy, according to Joe Sachs it still follows Aristotle’s definition of one in “The Poetics”. Which is, tragedy is the use of “imitation of action” to arouse pity and fear, leading to catharsis from the audience in a piece of literature. There are six main elements of tragedy; plot, character, thought, diction, melody, and spectacle. Through the use of the six main elements in tragedy (plot and character mainly), peripeteia, and anagnorisis The Iliad is proven to be a tragedy of its time.…

    • 1152 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics