51. Final Causality: Nature's Purpose and Its Implications

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Lecture Notes

Main Topics #

The Primacy of Final Causality #

• The end or purpose is the causa causarum—the cause of the causes
• Among the four kinds of causes (matter, form, mover/efficient cause, end), the end has preeminent importance when it operates as a cause
• The end is what makes the other causes function as causes

Why This Question Matters #

For Natural Philosophy #

• Understanding the ends or purposes of natural things is part of the natural philosopher’s goal
• Example: the eye for seeing, the ear for hearing, parts ordered toward their functions

For Ethics and Human Life #

• Fundamental question: Does man have a natural end or purpose by nature?
• If nature makes things for ends → man has a discoverable natural purpose to achieve
• If nature does NOT make things for ends → man either has no purpose, or must freely invent one (Sartrean existentialism)
• Consequence: All ethical thinking and the whole of human life depends on this answer
• Analogy of the ballpoint pen: If you don’t know the purpose of a pen, you don’t know what to do with it. Similarly, if you don’t know the purpose of man, you don’t know what to do with yourself

For Arts That Help Nature (Medical Art, Logic, Farming) #

• These arts help nature achieve what it is already trying to do
• Example: An obstetrician helps a woman deliver a baby—helping nature do what it already intends
• Contrast: A carpenter making a chair from a tree is not helping nature make chairs (the tree doesn’t try to make chairs)
• Strict definition: Arts that help nature = arts that help nature in what it’s already trying to do
• If nature acts for ends, these arts have clear parameters and purposes
• If nature does NOT act for ends, these arts become arbitrary with no natural parameters
• Example: The Hippocratic Oath’s prohibition on abortion presupposes nature intends birth
• Logic, like medicine, helps the mind achieve its natural end (understanding truth)

For Theology #

• If nature acts for an end without having a mind itself, this points to a greater mind directing it
• Leads to recognition of divine intelligence and the creator

The Power of Custom Over Argument #

Custom vs. Argument #

• Socratic example: In the Apology, anonymous accusers (custom) influenced opinion more strongly than courtroom arguments (formal proof)
• Custom acts on the mind before reason develops and becomes like a second nature
• Max Planck’s observation: New scientific ideas are rarely adopted by convincing older scientists. Instead, older scientists die off and younger ones are taught new ideas from the start
• Consequence: Even rigorous scientists are more influenced by custom than by evidence

Modern Customs Against Teleology #

Three major historical sources:

1. Mercantile Origin of Modern Cities (Late Middle Ages) #

• Ancient Greek cities had aristocratic origins; modern cities were founded by merchants
• The commercial ethos permeates modern civilization
• Economics becomes an independent discipline with prestige (Nobel Prizes in Economics exist)
• Examples: Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, Karl Marx’s Das Kapital
• Cultural values reflect this: “The proper business of America is business”
• Arts and culture become advertising media rather than intrinsic goods

2. Mathematical Science and Technology (17th-18th centuries) #

• Union of natural science with mechanical arts through mathematics
• Mathematics abstracts from differences between natural and artificial
• Shift in attitude (Heisenberg): From contemplation (understanding nature) to pragmatism (what can you do with nature?)
• Physics became the paradigm for all knowledge; Newton became the standard
• What mathematics excludes:
  • Substance (Descartes has only extension/quantity)
  • Sense qualities (modern science denies colors, heat, cold exist in nature)
  • Purpose/End (mathematics contains no ends or purposes)
• Custom effect: It seems “unscientific” to talk about purpose in nature because mathematical science cannot measure or express it

3. Democratic Revolutions and Equality (18th-19th centuries) #

• Shift from hereditary aristocratic inequality to democratic equality
• Democratic customs suggest leveling, mass movements, future-oriented thinking
• Democratic thought naturally suggests pantheistic ideas (all equally divine) rather than distinct divine mind

Common Misunderstandings of Final Causality #

These misunderstandings prevent people from correctly understanding and accepting final causality:

Misunderstanding 1: Confusing the Type of Cause #

• Mistaking the end as if it were a “mover” in the third sense (efficient cause)
• Giving a mystical interpretation: the end “reaches out” and “pulls” things toward it
• Examples of equivocation:
  • “I’m moving the eraser” (third cause—mechanical movement)
  • “Rapunzel’s beauty moved the prince” (fourth cause—final cause, not efficient movement)
  • “The performer is drawing the crowds” (fourth sense: attraction toward an end)
• The end attracts or draws in the fourth sense of cause, not by physical movement

Misunderstanding 2: False Dichotomy with Other Causes #

• Thinking we must choose between final cause and efficient cause
• Example: “Is my motion caused by nerve impulses and muscle contractions OR by my intention to eat lunch?”
• Truth: Both are true in their respective ways. It’s not either/or.
• People choose the more mechanically obvious cause over the less obvious purposive cause because efficient causes are more known to modern minds

Misunderstanding 3: False Dichotomy Between Intercourse and Baby #

• Asking whether intercourse or the baby is the cause of procreation
• Truth: Both are causes in different senses—intercourse as efficient cause, baby as final cause
• Again, people choose the more mechanically obvious cause

Key Arguments and Examples #

The Arm Example #

• Question: If I want to dissect your arm to improve my anatomical knowledge, do you have the right to prevent me? Or is it just a question of who is stronger?
• Answer: Your arm is naturally ordered toward you (the whole), not toward my knowledge
• If nature makes things for ends: Your arm is made for you; therefore I have no right to it
• If nature makes nothing for ends: Your arm is no more made for you than for my anatomical knowledge—just a matter of will and power
• Conclusion: Without teleology, ethics has no foundation; there is no difference between right and wrong, only might and weakness

The Grinder Example #

• If you would make good fertilizer for my garden, why shouldn’t I grind you up?
• Without natural purpose, you were not made for anything higher than fertilizing a garden
• Shows the absurdity of denying teleology in practical ethics

The Mind and Deception Example #

• Question: If I come to class intending to deceive you and leave you in deception, am I misusing and abusing your mind?
• Answer: Yes—only if mind is naturally made for knowing the truth
• If nature makes nothing for ends: Your mind is no more made for truth than for deception
• Consequence: You cannot “misuse” or “abuse” something without a natural purpose

The Heliocentric Example #

• Question: Why do students accept that the earth orbits the sun rather than the sun orbiting the earth?
• Answer: From custom, not from reasoning
• When pressed to defend by reason: earth naturally falls straight down; it doesn’t naturally rotate
• Conclusion: Custom is stronger than argument; people accept what they’re taught, not what reason would demonstrate

The Toga Example (Referenced briefly) #

• Wearing a toga in modern America would be laughed at not because it’s irrational but because it violates custom
• Shows the power of custom over rational argument

Important Definitions #

Final Cause (finis) #

• That for the sake of which something is done or made
• The end or purpose that orders and directs the other causes
• Distinguished from efficient cause (the mover/agent)
• Distinguished from formal and material causes

The Four Kinds of Causes #

1. Material cause (causa materialis): The matter or material from which something is made
2. Formal cause (causa formalis): The form or shape that determines what something is
3. Efficient cause (causa efficiens): The mover or agent that brings something into being
4. Final cause (causa finalis): The end or purpose for the sake of which something is done

Custom (consuetudo) #

• Habitual thinking and behavior formed by repeated exposure and teaching from youth
• Acts on the mind before reason develops
• Becomes “like a second nature”
• Stronger than argument in influencing belief and action

Notable Quotes #

“It is the causa causarum, as they say in Latin, the cause of the causes, right? It’s the cause of the other cause being causes.”

“If you don’t know the purpose of this [ballpoint pen], you don’t know what to do with it, right? Like a little baby might put it in his mouth… If you don’t know the purpose of man, you don’t know what to do with yourself.”

“You can’t really misuse somebody or abuse somebody if it doesn’t have any inner purpose, huh? In a sense, to misuse something is to use it in a way that’s contrary to its innate purpose.”

“The whole of ethics and the whole of their life, right, and all of our thinking about what we should do or should not do depends upon that, huh?”

“Custom is stronger [than argument]… Custom acts in our mind before we’re able to really reason. And custom produces a habit that’s like a second nature.”

“We don’t really convince the older physicists the new ideas. What happens is that they die off, and the younger guys starting out are introduced to the new ideas in the beginning of their career, right? And they accept them, and that’s how they get adopted.”

“Thank God people don’t act always in accord with their ideas, huh?”

Questions Addressed #

Central Question #

Does nature act for an end or purpose?

• Affirmative answer (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas): Nature makes things for ends; man has a natural, discoverable purpose
• Negative answer (Modern thinkers, Sartre): Nature makes nothing for ends; man either has no purpose or freely invents one

Subsidiary Questions #

• Is the end a cause in the same way as an efficient cause? (No; it’s a different kind of cause)
• How does understanding final causality affect ethics? (It establishes the foundation for right and wrong)
• How does custom prevent people from accepting final causality? (It makes alternative views seem obviously true)
• What historical developments shaped modern rejection of teleology? (Mercantilism, mathematical science, democracy)