PLATO AND THE FORMS

The first 200 words of this essay...

PRIME MOVER-CAUSES HOMEWORK-- SAMUEL COLE 5C

MY CLARIFICATION ON CAUSES TO HELP EXPLORE THE PRIME MOVER:

The final cause of a natural object - a plant or an animal - is not a purpose, plan, or 'intention.' Rather, it is whatever lies at the end of the regular series of developmental changes that typical specimens of a given species undergo. The final cause need not be a purpose that someone has in mind.

Aristotle opposes final causes in nature to chance or randomness. So the fact that there is regularity in nature - as Aristotle says, things in nature happen "always or for the most part" - suggests to him that biological individuals run true to form. So this end, which developing individuals regularly achieve, is what they are "aiming at." Thus, for a natural object, the final cause is typically identified with the formal cause. The final cause of a developing plant or animal is the form it will ultimately achieve, the form into which it grows and develops.

Material and formal causes are preconditions for change, in that they allow for the distinction between matter and form in terms of