PHILO-120 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Francis Crick, Intelligent Designer, Deism
12 Aug 2020
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Aristotle"s four causes/aetia: four basic explanatory features of a given thing. Formal cause: the basic principle that determines the type or species of a substance or accident, e. g. , statue, rational soul of a human being. Material cause: the stuff out of which a thing is made, e. g. , marble, body. Efficient cause: the being/s which produces a thing, e. g. , sculpture, parents. Final cause: the purpose or function of a thing, e. g. , to show honor, to live and act according to reason. Telos is the greek word for this cause; hence teleology as the study of the purpose of a thing. Aristotle contends even biological organisms have built-it final causes or teleological orientation. Origin of species by means of natural selection disrupts the overlapping consensus of cosmic teleology or design and in its place put chance and necessity. The ancient earth thesis: the universe is 15 billion years old and the earth. The common ancestry thesis: life originated from nonliving matter.
