Aristotle on Nature and Causation

FAIN: FT-58363-10

Margaret Elizabeth Scharle
Reed College (Portland, OR 97202-8138)

My research has long been driven by my keen interest in Aristotle's conception of natural teleology. Teleology is the study of the end-directedness of things, such as the growth of an acorn into an oak tree. I believe that the place of the elements (earth, air, fire, and water) in Aristotle's account of natural teleology has been widely misunderstood, and as a result, the account has been interpreted with an overly biological focus. One of my greatest scholarly contributions lies in my radically new interpretation of elemental teleology and the relationship the elements bear to the Prime Mover (God) and other natural things (such as plants and animals). I will articulate this view further by focusing on both the Meteorologica and Metaphysics L.

Associated Products

The Place of the Meteorologica in Aristotle’s Natural Science (Book Section)
Title: The Place of the Meteorologica in Aristotle’s Natural Science
Author: Margaret Scharle
Editor: David Ebrey
Abstract: In “‘And These Things Follow’: Teleology, Necessity, and Explanation in Aristotle’s Meteorologica,” Margaret Scharle argues that while teleology is not mentioned in the Meteorologica, it is implicitly presupposed there. In particular, the Meteorologica’s explanations depend on Aristotle’s view that there are two elemental cycles, an earth–?re cycle and an air–water cycle, which Aristotle ultimately explains in terms of teleological processes outside of the Meteorologica. Scharle argues that Aristotle’s procedure in explaining meteorology is just what one would expect from Parts of Animals i.1 and his practice in the biological works:he is examining the necessary byproducts of teleological processes. The difference between biological and meteorological cases, she argues, is that in biology the organism can make use of necessary by-products to further the organism’s ends. By contrast, there is no way for the elements to make use of necessary by-products to further their ends because they are entirely passive and have no parts.
Year: 2015
Primary URL: http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/philosophy/classical-philosophy/theory-and-practice-aristotles-natural-science?format=HB
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Book Title: Theory and Practice in Aristotle's Natural Science
ISBN: 110705513X

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