| FT-58363-10 | Research Programs: Summer Stipends | Margaret Elizabeth Scharle | Aristotle on Nature and Causation | 5/1/2010 - 9/30/2010 | $6,000.00 | Margaret | Elizabeth | Scharle | | | | Reed College | Portland | OR | 97202-8138 | USA | 2010 | History of Philosophy | Summer Stipends | Research Programs | 6000 | 0 | 6000 | 0 |
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. |