Hennig Aristotle's Four Causes

1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4331-5930-5
Verlag: Peter Lang
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 290 Seiten

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hennig, Boris

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Antike Philosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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.

Über Autor(innen)

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.