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For example, the efficient cause of a table is a carpenter, or a person working as one, and according to Aristotle the efficient cause of a child is a parent. Final, end, or purpose The final cause of a change or movement. This is a change or movement for the sake of a thing to be what it is.
Telos (/ ˈ t ɛ l ɒ s, ˈ t iː l ɒ s /; [1] Ancient Greek: τέλος, romanized: télos, lit. 'end, purpose, goal') [2] is a term used by philosopher Aristotle to refer to the final cause of a natural organ or entity, or of human art.
Plato (left) and Aristotle, depicted here in The School of Athens, both developed philosophical arguments addressing the universe's apparent order (). Teleology (from τέλος, telos, 'end', 'aim', or 'goal', and λόγος, logos, 'explanation' or 'reason') [1] or finality [2] [3] is a branch of causality giving the reason or an explanation for something as a function of its end, its ...
In some works of Aristotle, the four causes are listed as (1) the essential cause, (2) the logical ground, (3) the moving cause, and (4) the final cause. In this listing, a statement of essential cause is a demonstration that an indicated object conforms to a definition of the word that refers to it.
The Fifth Way uses Aristotle's final cause. Aristotle argued that a complete explanation of an object will involve knowledge of how it came to be (efficient cause), what material it consists of (material cause), how that material is structured (formal cause), and the specific behaviors associated with the type of thing it is (final cause). [25]
Final cause and efficient cause [ edit ] Simplicius argues that the first unmoved mover is a cause not only in the sense of being a final cause—which everyone in his day, as in ours, would accept—but also in the sense of being an efficient cause (1360. 24ff.), and his master Ammonius wrote a whole book defending the thesis (ibid. 1363. 8–10).
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Teleology, from Greek τέλος, telos "end, purpose" [3] and -λογία, logia, "a branch of learning", was coined by the philosopher Christian von Wolff in 1728. [4] The concept derives from the ancient Greek philosophy of Aristotle, where the final cause (the purpose) of a thing is its function. [5]