95 Sentences With "final cause" | Random Sentence Generator

A final cause of the crash has not yet been determined.

Then: Final cause of death: Acute propoxyphene and diazepam toxicity. Suicide.

Pathologists will determine the final cause and manner of his death, officials said.

The final cause of death remains undetermined pending results from toxicology testing, Betz said.

A final cause of death with be issued as soon as toxicology results are returned.

One final cause of vaginal bleeding, though rare for women your age, is cervical cancer.

According to Winter, an autopsy was performed and the final cause of death was ruled to be accidental drowning.

The investigation is ongoing and police are waiting on the medical examiner's report for a final cause of death.

One final cause for concern is that stocks have yet to oversold, although the major indexes have not had a positive session in more than a week.

As of Thursday, "preliminary information suggests the death occurred under natural circumstances," but "the final cause and manner of death will be determined at a later date," according to the coroner.

As of Thursday, "preliminary information suggests the death occurred under natural circumstances," but "the final cause and manner of death will be determined at a later date," according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner coroner.

As of last week, "preliminary information suggests the death occurred under natural circumstances," but "the final cause and manner of death will be determined at a later date," according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner.

"Although a significant finding, there are many additional factors to consider, such as underlying illness, disease and maternal separation, before a final cause of stranding and death for the dolphin can be determined," FWC said in a Facebook statement.

Boyce's family has said his fatal seizure was the result of epilepsy, and while Boyce's final cause of death has yet to be determined, his tragic loss is a reminder that every year, about 1 in 1,000 people with epilepsy suddenly die.

While the investigation is ongoing and a final cause of the Ethiopian Airlines crash has not yet been determined, Boeing's anti-stall system is under fire and the plane's approval by regulators is the subject of numerous investigations by U.S. lawmakers and federal officials.

Despite their apparent function in the celestial model, the unmoved movers were a final cause, not an efficient cause for the movement of the spheres; they were solely a constant inspiration, and even if taken for an efficient cause precisely due to being a final cause, the nature of the explanation is purely teleological.

While the vagaries of the material cause are subject to circumstance, the formal, efficient and final cause often coincide because in natural kinds, the mature form and final cause are one and the same. The capacity to mature into a specimen of one's kind is directly acquired from “the primary source of motion”, i.e., from one's father, whose seed (sperma) conveys the essential nature (common to the species), as a hypothetical ratio.

Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics (tr. Thomson J., Penguin, Harmondsworth, 2004) Regarding virtue, Elinor Mason refers to J.S.Mill who made the distinction between lower values and higher values.Mason Op.cit.1 The distinction is that between efficient cause and final cause: whereas efficient cause includes hunger, thirst and the need for shelter, final cause arises from our having an overview of the relation of cause and effect whereby we can determine the end we want to achieve and then decide the means to achieve it.

Isaac Newton in a 1702 portrait by Godfrey Kneller Aristotle recognized four kinds of causes, and where applicable, the most important of them is the "final cause". The final cause was the aim, goal, or purpose of some natural process or man-made thing. Until the Scientific Revolution, it was very natural to see such aims, such as a child's growth, for example, leading to a mature adult. Intelligence was assumed only in the purpose of man-made artifacts; it was not attributed to other animals or to nature.

Both are causes. In Aristotelian terms, a neurological account explains the efficient cause, while the purpose-based account explains the final cause. The physical causal closure thesis challenges this account. It attempts to reduce all teleological final (and formal) causes to efficient causes.

This is also known as the Teleological Argument. However, it is not a "Cosmic Watchmaker" argument from design (see below). Instead, as the 1920 Dominican translation puts it, The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world. The Fifth Way uses Aristotle's final cause.

In western philosophy, the term and concept of teleology originated in the writings of Plato and Aristotle. Aristotle's 'four causes' give special place to the telos or "final cause" of each thing. In this, he followed Plato in seeing purpose in both human and subhuman nature.

He agrees that zoologists rightly seek for reasons in animals' adaptations, and reminds readers of the related but far older philosophical search for teleology, explanation by some Aristotelian final cause. His analysis of "growth and form" will try to show how these can be explained with ordinary physical laws.

Asaduzzaman, M. "Secular Inflation by Friedrich-Karl Lage." The Pakistan Development Review 10: 283-285. A final cause of secular inflation is consumption behavior, especially when people live beyond their means as a result of the Duessenberry effect.Asaduzzaman, M. "Secular Inflation by Friedrich-Karl Lage." The Pakistan Development Review 10: 283-285.

The final cause is that for the sake of which something takes place, its aim or teleological purpose: for a germinating seed, it is the adult plant, for a ball at the top of a ramp, it is coming to rest at the bottom, for an eye, it is seeing, for a knife, it is cutting.

An unmoved mover is assumed for each sphere, including a "prime mover" for the sphere of fixed stars. The unmoved movers do not push the spheres (nor could they, being immaterial and dimensionless) but are the final cause of the spheres' motion, i.e. they explain it in a way that's similar to the explanation "the soul is moved by beauty".

As per the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle, Aquinas defines "the good" as what all things strive for. E.g., a cutting knife is said to be good if it is effective at its function, cutting. As all things have a function/final cause, all real things are good. Consequently, evil is nothing but privatio boni, or "lack of good", as Augustine of Hippo defined it.

They are spontaneous changes. That is, orthograde changes are generated by the spontaneous elimination of asymmetries in a thermodynamic system in disequilibrium. Because orthograde changes are driven by the internal geometry of a changing system, orthograde causes can be seen as analogous to Aristotle's formal cause. More loosely, Aristotle's final cause can also be considered orthograde, because goal oriented actions are caused from within.

The first, the formal cause, is like a blueprint, or an immortal idea. The second cause is the material cause, or what a thing is made out of. The third cause is the efficient cause, that is, the process and the agent by which the thing is made. The fourth, the final cause, is the good, or the purpose and end of a thing, known as telos.

The facts of existence, however, are not adequately explained by the mechanical categories. The ultimate interpretation of the universe can only be found in the higher category of End or final cause. Here Trendelenburg finds the dividing line, between philosophical systems. On the one side stand those that acknowledge none but efficient causes, which make force prior to thought, and explain the universe, as it were, a tergo ("from the back").

With fictionate final goal, questions are asked more along the lines of "what for" or "where to" instead of "why" or "where from". The goal and purpose of a behavior is looked at instead of finding the cause of a behavior. The final cause of the behavior is the focus, which is where fictionate final goal is termed. Social interest is another area that contributes to classical Adlerian psychotherapy.

1045 (CET.DISC.26)). The Syntagma is an important source for Byzantine cuisine and dietetics. Simeon's work ' (Conspectus rerum naturalium, "On the things of nature") is a treatise on the natural sciences divided into five books. The first concerns the earth; the second, the elements; the third, the sky and the stars; the fourth, matter, form, nature and the soul (sense perception); the fifth, the final cause and divine providence.

While Aristotle asserts that the matter (and parts) are a necessary cause of thingsthe material causehe says that nature is primarily the essence or formal cause (1.193b6), that is, the information, the whole species itself. In chapter 3, Aristotle presents his theory of the four causes (material, efficient, formal, and finalFor an especially clear discussion, see chapter 6 of Mortimer Adler, Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy (1978).). Material cause explains what something is made of (for example, the wood of a house), formal cause explains the form which a thing follows to become that thing (the plans of an architect to build a house), efficient cause is the actual source of the change (the physical building of the house), and final cause is the intended purpose of the change (the final product of the house and its purpose as a shelter and home). Of particular importance is the final cause or purpose (telos).

The hard problem of consciousness is the question of what consciousness is and why we have consciousness as opposed to being philosophical zombies. The adjective "hard" is to contrast with the "easy" consciousness problems, which seek to explain the mechanisms of consciousness ("why" versus "how", or final cause versus efficient cause). The hard problem of consciousness is questioning whether all beings undergo an experience of consciousness rather than questioning the neurological makeup of beings.

Each of these concentric spheres is moved by its own god—an unchanging divine unmoved mover, and who moves its sphere simply by virtue of being loved by it."The final cause, then, produces motion by being loved, but all other things move by being moved" Aristotle Metaphysics 1072b4. Ptolemaic model of the spheres for Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn with epicycle, eccentric deferent and equant point. Georg von Peuerbach, Theoricae novae planetarum, 1474.

Readers of Aristotle have found the four causes that he uses in his biological explanations opaque, something not helped by many centuries of confused exegesis. For a biological system, these are however straightforward enough. The material cause is simply what a system is constructed from. The goal (final cause) and formal cause are what something is for, its function: to a modern biologist, such teleology describes adaptation under the pressure of natural selection.

The preliminary cause of the Freeway Fire was thought to be the result of a vehicle exhaust system igniting roadside vegetation. The fire investigation report was completed by the end of March 2009. According to the final cause report released by CAL FIRE on January 4, 2010, the cause of the fire was a faulty catalytic converter. The Landfill Fire was investigated by the Brea Police Department, along with investigators from the OCFA.

It was then that he began to delve into human learning, focusing on cognition and memory, his goal to examine the influence of theories on our concept of human nature. Rychlak wanted to broaden traditional psychology's view of the model of causality. He believed that too much emphasis is on material and sufficient cause, but not on formal and final cause. Rychlak’s LLT examined learning as a teleological practice rather than nontelic aspects of learning.

The latter also focus on complexity and interworking parts as the effect needing explanation, whereas the Fifth Way takes as its starting point any regularity. (E.g., that an eye has a complicated function therefore a design therefore a designer) but an argument from final cause (e.g., that the pattern that things exist with a purpose itself allows us to recursively arrive at God as the ultimate source of purpose without being constrained by any external purpose).

He justified this on the basis that, there would be no point in astrological signs appearing from unknown sources if they did not mean anything. Peucer's thinking about meteorology was that it had two purposes: a natural one and a divine one. He believed that the energy from the weather caused an effect on human behavior, which he called the "natural efficient cause". He believed that the divine cause, which he called the "final cause" gave warnings or signs.

Teleology, from Greek τέλος, telos "end, purpose" and -λογία, logia, "a branch of learning", was coined by the philosopher Christian von Wolff in 1728. The concept derives from the ancient Greek philosophy of Aristotle, where the final cause (the purpose) of a thing is its function. However, Aristotle's biology does not envisage evolution by natural selection. Phrases used by biologists like "a function of ... is to ..." or "is designed for" are teleological at least in language.

Aristotle defines the end, purpose, or final "cause" () as that for the sake of which a thing is done. Like the form, this is a controversial type of explanation in science; some have argued for its survival in evolutionary biology, while Ernst Mayr denied that it continued to play a role."The development or behavior of an individual is purposive, natural selection is definitely not…. Darwin 'has swept out such finalistic teleology by the front door.'" Mayr, Ernst. 1961.

He argued that organisms only know the world by their sensations and that this is a mechanical phenomenon to the effect that there is no design, final cause, supernaturalism or teleology. He subscribed to the materialist views of Epicurus, he commented that "in human affairs, Epicureanism is the only natural ethics which does not demand profound or subtle reasoning." Several of his books were translated by Harold Atkins Larrabee. Mayer advocated progressionist liberalism and opposed Marxism.

Ordered by Devaul to kidnap Licca, until he reformed on the halfway of the series to defend the princess. : : Licca's father, a musician whose melody is so powerful that it was the final cause of death of Devaul. : : Another friend of Licca, noted for his intelligence and his way of being a bit strange. Most of his hobbies include astronomy, reading books, science and everything related to the study and more than once saved his brilliant ideas to his friends.

Although de Ruyter did partially revert to mêlée tactics in the last day of the Four Days Battle.Fox, The Four Days Battle of 1666, p.262, fighting in line became the standard tactic in new Fighting Instructions approved by the States General in August 1665.Fox, The Four Days Battle of 1666, pp.127-8 The final cause was the inferiority of Dutch ships which, though well-constructed, were generally smaller and more lightly armed than those of other maritime nations.

He had little attachment to Protestants either, except as counter-weight to papal policies. He put his primary support behind conciliarists, irenicists and humanists. When the papacy instigated the Counter-Reformation, using agents sent to his court, Rudolf backed those whom he thought were the most neutral in the debate, not taking a side or trying to effect restraint, thus leading to political chaos and threatening to provoke civil war. His conflict with the Ottoman Empire was the final cause of his undoing.

Since the 19th century, many Muslims have aspired to uniting the Muslim ummah to serve their common political, economic and social interests. Despite the presence of secularist, nationalist and socialist ideologies in modern Muslim states, they have cooperated to form the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. The formation of the OIC happened in the backdrop of the loss of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem. The final cause sufficiently compelled leaders of Muslim nations to meet in Rabat to establish the OIC on September 25, 1969.

Dominican friar and theologian who formalised the "Five Ways" intended to demonstrate God's existence. The Quinque viæ (Latin for "Five Ways") (sometimes called "five proofs") are five logical arguments for the existence of God summarized by the 13th-century Catholic philosopher and theologian St. Thomas Aquinas in his book Summa Theologica. They are: #the argument from "first mover"; #the argument from causation; #the argument from contingency; #the argument from degree; #the argument from final cause or ends ("teleological argument"). Aquinas expands the first of these – God as the "unmoved mover" – in his Summa Contra Gentiles.

Final case is used for marking final cause ("for a house"). Semitic languages had that case, but all of them lost itEgon K. Keck, Frede Løkkegaard, Svend Søndergaard, Ellen Wulff, Living Waters: Scandinavian orientalistic studies presented to Frede Løkkegaard on his seventy, Page 160, Google book search, 1990Karin C Ryding, A Reference Grammar of Modern Standard Arabic, Page 166, Google book search, 2005. In Arabic, nouns in such position are marked by the accusative marking (e.g. ǧadda ṭalaban li-l-ʼaǧri he worked hard for the sake of reward).

Aristotle argued that Democritus was wrong to attempt to reduce all things to mere necessity, because doing so neglects the aim, order, and "final cause", which brings about these necessary conditions: In Physics, using eternal forms as his model, Aristotle rejects Plato's assumption that the universe was created by an intelligent designer. For Aristotle, natural ends are produced by "natures" (principles of change internal to living things), and natures, Aristotle argued, do not deliberate:Hardie, R. P., and R. K. Gaye, trans. 2007. "Aristotle - Physics." Pp. 602–852 in Aristotle - Works, edited by W. D. Ross.

In behavior analysis, Hayne Reese made the adverbial distinction between purposefulness (having an internal determination) and purposiveness (serving or effecting a useful function). Reese implies that non-teleological statements are called teleonomic when they represent an "if A then C" phenomenon's antecedent; where, teleology is a consequent representation. The concept of purpose, as only being the teleology final cause, requires supposedly impossible time reversal; because, the future consequent determines the present antecedent. Purpose, as being both in the beginning and the end, simply rejects teleology, and addresses the time reversal problem.

He argues that the end is that which brings it about, so for example "if one defines the operation of sawing as being a certain kind of dividing, then this cannot come about unless the saw has teeth of a certain kind; and these cannot be unless it is of iron."Aristotle, Physics II.9. 200b4–7. According to Aristotle, once a final "cause" is in place, the material, efficient and formal "causes" follow by necessity. However, he recommends that the student of nature determine the other "causes" as well,Aristotle, Physics II.9.

" Francis Darwin and T. H. Huxley reiterate this sentiment. The latter wrote that "the most remarkable service to the philosophy of Biology rendered by Mr. Darwin is the reconciliation of Teleology and Morphology, and the explanation of the facts of both, which his view offers." James G. Lennox states that Darwin uses the term 'Final Cause' consistently in his Species Notebook, On the Origin of Species, and after. Contrary to the position described by Francisco J. Ayala, Ernst Mayr states that "adaptedness... is a posteriori result rather than an a priori goal-seeking.

After enumerating the shortcomings of the current and past natural philosophies, Bacon can now present his own philosophy and methods. Bacon retains the Aristotelian causes, but redefines them in interesting ways. While traditionally the final cause was held as most important among the four (material, formal, efficient, and final), Bacon claims that it is the least helpful and in some cases actually detrimental to the sciences (aph. 2). For Bacon, it is the formal cause which is both the most illusive and most valuable, although each of the causes provides certain practical devices.

Dysteleology is the philosophical view that existence has no telos - no final cause from purposeful design. Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) invented and popularized the word ‘dysteleology’ ( ). Dysteleology is an aggressive, yet optimistic, form of science-oriented atheism originally perhaps associated with Haeckel and his followers, but now perhaps more associated with the type of atheism of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, or Christopher Hitchens. Transcending traditional philosophical and religious perspectives, such as German idealism (including the philosophies of Hegel and Schelling) and contemporary New Age thinking, modern philosophical naturalism sees existence as having no inherent goal.

This is the Vaiśnava doctrine of Vyūha or the doctrine of formation. The Chatur- vyūha forms of Vishnu are related to four of the six causes of creation which six are God Himself as the final cause of creation and His five aspects – Narāyana (thinking), Vāsudeva (feeling), Samkarśana (willing), Pradyumna (knowing), and Aniruddha (acting) successively. Each divinity controls its specific creative energy. The six gunas – jnana (omniscience), aishvarya (lordship), shakti (potency), bala (force), virya (virtue) and tejas (self- sufficiency), acting in pairs and in totality, are the instruments and the subtle material of pure creation.

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). The concept of final causes involves the concept of dispositions or "ends": a specific goal or aim towards which something strives. For example, acorns regularly develop into oak trees but never into sea lions. The oak tree is the "end" towards which the acorn "points," its disposition, even if it fails to achieve maturity.

Adaptation is an observable fact of life accepted by philosophers and natural historians from ancient times, independently of their views on evolution, but their explanations differed. Empedocles did not believe that adaptation required a final cause (a purpose), but thought that it "came about naturally, since such things survived." Aristotle did believe in final causes, but assumed that species were fixed. The second of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's two factors (the first being a complexifying force) was an adaptive force that causes animals with a given body plan to adapt to circumstances by inheritance of acquired characteristics, creating a diversity of species and genera.

In answer to the doctrine of final cause, of design in nature, he pointed to those things which cause destruction and danger to man, to the evil committed by men endowed with reason, to the miserable condition of humanity, and to the misfortunes that assail the good man. There is, he concluded, no evidence for the doctrine of a divine superintending providence. Even if there were orderly connexion of parts in the universe, this may have resulted quite naturally. No proof can be advanced to show that this world is anything but the product of natural forces.

In the middle of the 20th century, Ernst Mayr's discussions on the teleology of nature brought up issues that were dealt with previously by Aristotle (regarding final cause) and Kant (regarding reflective judgment). Especially since the mid-20th-century European crisis, some thinkers argued the importance of looking at nature from a broad philosophical perspective, rather than what they considered a narrowly positivist approach relying implicitly on a hidden, unexamined philosophy.E.A. Burtt, Metaphysical Foundations of Modern Science (Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1954), 227-230. One line of thought grows from the Aristotelian tradition, especially as developed by Thomas Aquinas.

Actuality is the fulfilment of the end of the potentiality. Because the end (telos) is the principle of every change, and for the sake of the end exists potentiality, therefore actuality is the end. Referring then to our previous example, we could say that an actuality is when a plant does one of the activities that plants do. In summary, the matter used to make a house has potentiality to be a house and both the activity of building and the form of the final house are actualities, which is also a final cause or end.

In > contrast, techne is the rational method involved in producing an object or > accomplishing a goal or objective; however, the two methods are not mutually > exclusive in principle. These are demonstrated in the cases of writing and > seeing, as explained by Martin Heidegger: the former is considered a form of > techne, as the end product lies beyond (para) the activity of producing; > whereas, in seeing, there is no remainder outside of or beyond the activity > itself at the moment it is accomplished. Aristotle, for his part, simply > designated telos as the consummation or the final cause of techne.

Descartes's theory of dualism supports the distinction between traditional Aristotelian science and the new science of Kepler and Galileo, which denied the role of a divine power and "final causes" in its attempts to explain nature. Descartes's dualism provided the philosophical rationale for the latter by expelling the final cause from the physical universe (or res extensa) in favor of the mind (or res cogitans). Therefore, while Cartesian dualism paved the way for modern physics, it also held the door open for religious beliefs about the immortality of the soul. Descartes's dualism of mind and matter implied a concept of human beings.

Vigorous flocks with many juveniles and reproducing pairs were noted as late as 1896, and the birds were long-lived in captivity, but they had virtually disappeared by 1904. Sufficient nest sites remained intact, so deforestation was not the final cause. American ornithologist Noel F. Snyder speculates that the most likely cause seems to be that the birds succumbed to poultry disease, although no recent or historical records exist of New World parrot populations being afflicted by domestic poultry diseases. The modern poultry scourge Newcastle disease was not detected until 1926 in Indonesia, and only a subacute form of it was reported in the United States in 1938.

Henry also saw to it that the requested amendments were incorporated in petitions from the legislature to the federal Congress. Despite his qualms, Henry served as one of Virginia's presidential electors, voting for Washington (elected President) and John Adams (elected Vice President). Henry was disappointed when the First Congress passed only amendments dealing with personal liberties, not those designed to weaken the government. A final cause Henry engaged in before leaving the House of Delegates at the end of 1790 was over the Funding Act of 1790, by which the federal government took over the debts of the states, much of which dated from the Revolutionary War.

The content of the conclusion as knowledge is the essential matter for the former; the content of the conclusion as motive is the essential matter for the latter. The main business of the former is with the understanding, of the latter, with the will; the principle of ' sufficient reason' is related to the understanding as the principle of ' final cause' or motive is related to the will. In the practical syllogism obligation is vested in the conclusion, and the particular or minor premise is more cogent than the major, i.e. it is not the general law, but the application of the general law to a particular person, that stimulates to action.

"Accessing Secondary Markets As a Capital Source for Energy Efficiency Finance Programs: Program Design Considerations for Policymakers and Administrators" Mortgage and auto lenders don't have this difficulty, because there are highly liquid secondary markets for home and car loans, which helps keeps rates low. These kinds of secondary markets are just now forming for clean energy technologies. The final cause of private underinvestment relates to human and organizational behavior. To begin lending into a new market, a bank must hire new staff, learn about the risks and processes of a new market, and determine precise criteria for what kind of projects and credit ratings they are willing to lend to.

Moreover, in Meditations Descartes discusses a piece of wax and exposes the single most characteristic doctrine of Cartesian dualism: that the universe contained two radically different kinds of substances—the mind or soul defined as thinking, and the body defined as matter and unthinking. The Aristotelian philosophy of Descartes's days held that the universe was inherently purposeful or teleological. Everything that happened, be it the motion of the stars or the growth of a tree, was supposedly explainable by a certain purpose, goal or end that worked its way out within nature. Aristotle called this the "final cause," and these final causes were indispensable for explaining the ways nature operated.

The most famous proponent of the Asharite occasionalist doctrine was Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali, an 11th-century theologian based in Baghdad. In The Incoherence of the Philosophers,. Al-Ghazali launched a philosophical critique against Neoplatonic-influenced early Islamic philosophers such as Al- Farabi and Ibn Sina. In response to the philosophers' claim that the created order is governed by secondary efficient causes (God being, as it were, the Primary and Final Cause in an ontological and logical sense), Ghazali argues that what we observe as regularity in nature based presumably upon some natural law is actually a kind of constant and continual regularity.

Because of the reduction of water, land emerged on the third day. The continued heating of the waters above the firmament caused the water to create the heavenly bodies on the fourth day. The continued warming of land caused the plant, animal, and human life to arise on the fifth and sixth days. Thierry's explanation of the creation of the world is based on a theological interpretation of Aristotle's four causes, which he identifies with the three persons of the Trinity plus matter (made up of the four elements): the Father is the efficient cause, the Son is the formal cause, the Holy Spirit is the final cause and the four elements are the material cause.

The final cause described by Aristotle are the "what for" of an object, but Descartes claims that because he is unable to comprehend completely the mind of God, it is impossible to understand completely the "why" through science—only the "how." > I realize that I shouldn't be surprised at God's doing things that I can't > explain. I shouldn't doubt His existence just because I find that I > sometimes can't understand why or how He has made something. I know that my > nature is weak and limited and that God's is limitless, incomprehensible, > and infinite, and, from this, I can infer that He can do innumerable things > whose reasons are unknown to me.

In the Western tradition of philosophy, the earliest known comprehensive treatments of the subject are from Plato's Phaedo, Republic, and Statesman and Aristotle's Metaphysics, though earlier fragmentary writing exists. Aristotle developed a comprehensive theory of being, according to which only individual things, called substances, fully have to be, but other things such as relations, quantity, time, and place (called the categories) have a derivative kind of being, dependent on individual things. In Aristotle's Metaphysics, there are four causes of existence or change in nature: the material cause, the formal cause, the efficient cause and the final cause. The Neo-Platonists and some early Christian philosophers argued about whether existence had any reality except in the mind of God.

Aristotle's works contain accurate observations, fitted into his own theories of the body's mechanisms. However, for Charles Singer, "Nothing is more remarkable than [Aristotle's] efforts to [exhibit] the relationships of living things as a scala naturae." This scala naturae, described in Historia animalium, classified organisms in relation to a hierarchical but static "Ladder of Life" or "great chain of being," placing them according to their complexity of structure and function, with organisms that showed greater vitality and ability to move described as "higher organisms." Aristotle believed that features of living organisms showed clearly that they had what he called a final cause, that is to say that their form suited their function.

And if man was forced to doubt the truth of his own perceptions, on what could he base his understanding of the natural world? Additionally, a further distinction between Descartes’ writings on physics and those on human nature such as can be found in Passions is their relationship to Aristotelian teleology.Robert Rethy, "The Teaching of Nature and the Nature of Man in Descartes' 'Passions de l'Ame,'" 53.3 (March, 2000): 657-683. While Descartes argues against the existence of a final cause in physics, the nature of his work on examining the origins and functions of desires in the human soul necessitates the existence of a final goal towards which the individual is working.

I call (in the abstract) causation the will of God: & I can prove that He acts for the good of His creatures. He also acts by laws which we can study & comprehend—Acting by law, & under what is called final cause, comprehends, I think, your whole principle... He emphasised his distinction between the moral and physical aspects of life, "There is a moral or metaphysical part of nature as well as a physical. A man who denies this is deep in the mire of folly". If humanity broke this distinction it "would suffer a damage that might brutalize it—& sink the human race into a lower grade of degradation than any into which it has fallen since its written records tell us of its history".

Avicenna begins part one by dividing theoretical medicine and medical practice. He describes what he says are the "four causes" of illness, based on Aristotelian philosophy: The material cause, the efficient cause, the formal cause, and the final cause: #Material Cause Avicenna says that this cause is the human subject itself, the "members or the breath" or "the humours" indirectly. #Efficient Cause The efficient cause is broken up into two categories: The first is "Extrinsic", or the sources external to the human body such as air or the region we live in. The second efficient cause is the "Intrinsic", or the internal sources such as our sleep and "its opposite-the waking state", the "different periods of life", habits, and race.

"[S]ince Christ's true body is in this sacrament, and since it does not begin to be there by local motion, nor is it contained therein as in a place, as is evident from what was stated above (III 75 1 ad 2), it must be said then that it begins to be there by conversion of the substance of bread into itself" (III 75 4). But, again, Thomas held that the final cause was the "cause of all causes" and so held priority over the material and formal causes (which had to do with substance) of which he was speaking. To be faithful to Thomas' theology, then, the purpose of the bread should never be overlooked in the effort to find meaning.

The circumstances that led to Ardoin's death, and the final cause of his death, are uncertain. Descendants of family members and musicians who knew Ardoin tell a story, now well-known, about a racially motivated attack on him in which he was severely beaten, in about 1939, while walking home after playing at a house dance near Eunice. The most common story says that some white men were angered when a white woman, daughter of the house, lent her handkerchief to Ardoin to wipe the sweat from his face. According to Canray Fontenot and Wade Fruge, in PBS's American Patchwork, Ardoin left the place and was run over by a Model A car which crushed his head and throat, damaging his vocal cords.

Bacon sometimes wrote as if he accepted the traditional four causes ("It is a correct position that "true knowledge is knowledge by causes." And causes again are not improperly distributed into four kinds: the material, the formal, the efficient, and the final") but he adapted these terms and rejected one of the three: > But of these the final cause rather corrupts than advances the sciences, > except such as have to do with human action. The discovery of the formal is > despaired of. The efficient and the material (as they are investigated and > received, that is, as remote causes, without reference to the latent process > leading to the form) are but slight and superficial, and contribute little, > if anything, to true and active science.

All work was done voluntarily, no fees were given, and during its brief existence the Association was instrumental in bringing such men as Dr. Congreve, Mr. Moncure Conway, Mr. Auberon Herbert, and many other well-known men, to deliver addresses. A difficulty about getting a suitable place of meeting, by reason of the large rent asked, was the final cause of the dissolution of the little body in June 1886. Mr. Brockie did not fill any public office in Sunderland beyond being a member of the Museum and Free Library Committee, where he rendered excellent service in the compilation of the Catalogue. Mr. Brockie died at his residence, 22 Olive Street, Sunderland, on 20 October 1890, in his 80th year.

The founder of teleological behaviorism is Howard Rachlin, an Emeritus Research Professor of Psychology at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. Originally focusing his work on operant behavior, he eventually became interested in the concepts of free-will as they applied to Behavioral Economics and turned his interest to the related field of teleological behaviorism from there. A large influence for Rachlin’s work was Aristotle’s early philosophies on the mind, specifically how “Artistotle’s classification of movements in terms of final rather than efficient causes corresponds to B.F. Skinner’s conception of an operant as a class of movements with a common end”. This concept that Rachlin is referring to is Artistotle’s concept of Telos, “the final cause” that drives us all forward towards a common end.

In Buddhism and Jainism, Gautama Buddha, Mahavira and other Tirthankaras, Buddhas and bodhisattvas are also venerated with this title. The feminine of Bhagavat is Bhagawatī and is an epithet of Durga and other goddesses. This title is also used by a number of contemporary spiritual teachers in India who claim to be Bhagavan or have realized impersonal Brahman. Bhakti (devotion to God) consists of actions performed dedicated to the Paramatman, the individuated existence which has free-will and who is the final cause of the world; the Vedic Rishis describe the goals originated from God as Bhagavān, the Ananda aspect of God where God has manifested His personality is called Bhagavān when consciousness (pure self-awareness) aligns with those goals to cause the unified existence and commencement of works follow.

He has also pointed to the difference between immediate, intermediate and distant causes.Gaddis, John L. (2002), The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past, 95. For his part, Christopher Lloyd puts forward four "general concepts of causation" used in history: the "metaphysical idealist concept, which asserts that the phenomena of the universe are products of or emanations from an omnipotent being or such final cause"; "the empiricist (or Humean) regularity concept, which is based on the idea of causation being a matter of constant conjunctions of events"; "the functional/teleological/consequential concept", which is "goal-directed, so that goals are causes"; and the "realist, structurist and dispositional approach, which sees relational structures and internal dispositions as the causes of phenomena".Lloyd, Christopher (1993) Structures of History, 159.

René Descartes furthered a mathematical approach to philosophy and epistemology through skepticism and rationalism, emphasizing the practical value of power over nature. In his Discourse on Method, Descartes said, “we can find a practical [philosophy], by which knowing the nature and behavior of fire, water, air, stars, the heavens, and all the other bodies which surround us…we can employ these entities for all the purposes for which they are suited, and so make ourselves the masters and possessors of nature”. In addition to the importance of power over nature, Descartes (like Bacon) insisted upon dismissing final cause, stating that “the entire class of causes which people customarily derive from a thing’s ‘end,’ I judge to be utterly useless”. Descartes’ practical philosophy also proposed a dualism between the mind and the physical body, based on the belief that they are two distinct substances.

As pointed out by Sedley, "Aristotle is happy to say (Physics II 8, 199a33-b4) without the slightest fear of blasphemy, crafts make occasional mistakes; therefore, by analogy, so can nature." According to Aristotle the changes which happen by nature are caused by their "formal causes", and for example in the case of a bird's wings there is also a final cause which is the purpose of flying. He explicitly compared this to human technology: The question of how to understand Aristotle's conception of nature having a purpose and direction something like human activity is controversial in the details. Martha Nussbaum for example has argued that in his biology this approach was practical and meant to show nature only being analogous to human art, explanations of an organ being greatly informed by knowledge of its essential function.

If I had no other proof for my belief in the existence and sovereignty of an Intelligent Final Cause, I would derive it from my recognition of the fact that supreme order, uninterrupted harmony, eternal and immutable law, control all nature, heaven and earth, all inorganic and organic, in but one way, and in no other." He argues that evolution is simply part of the law of nature and that "this natural law shape matter with design and direct force with a purpose, and design and purpose presuppose intelligence." Krauskopf argued that evolution was the same as "Supreme Governing Power, Supreme Will, Supreme Natural Law" and that "by theologians it is called 'God.'" With "this conception of the nature of God" he argued that "every difference between science and religion disappears" and "with this conception of God, as manifested in nature, I am prepared to accept even Darwinism.

Two concepts that are of paramount importance in the Upanishads are Brahman and Atman. The Brahman is the ultimate reality and the Atman is individual self (soul). Brahman is the material, efficient, formal and final cause of all that exists.PT Raju (2006), Idealistic Thought of India, Routledge, , page 426 and Conclusion chapter part XIIMariasusai Dhavamony (2002), Hindu-Christian Dialogue: Theological Soundings and Perspectives, Rodopi Press, , pages 43-44For dualism school of Hinduism, see: Francis X. Clooney (2010), Hindu God, Christian God: How Reason Helps Break Down the Boundaries between Religions, Oxford University Press, , pages 51-58, 111-115; For monist school of Hinduism, see: B Martinez-Bedard (2006), Types of Causes in Aristotle and Sankara, Thesis - Department of Religious Studies (Advisors: Kathryn McClymond and Sandra Dwyer), Georgia State University, pages 18-35 It is the pervasive, genderless, infinite, eternal truth and bliss which does not change, yet is the cause of all changes.

The Pranava Mantra (Om/Aum) denotes the Brahman as primordial sound form. Ātman merging into Brahman. Brahman (), () connotes the highest Universal Principle, the Ultimate Reality in the universe.P. T. Raju (2006), Idealistic Thought of India, Routledge, , page 426 and Conclusion chapter part XII In major schools of Hindu philosophy, it is the material, efficient, formal and final cause of all that exists.Mariasusai Dhavamony (2002), Hindu-Christian Dialogue: Theological Soundings and Perspectives, Rodopi Press, , pages 43–44For dualism school of Hinduism, see: Francis X. Clooney (2010), Hindu God, Christian God: How Reason Helps Break Down the Boundaries between Religions, Oxford University Press, , pages 51–58, 111–115; For monist school of Hinduism, see: B. Martinez-Bedard (2006), Types of Causes in Aristotle and Sankara, Thesis – Department of Religious Studies (Advisors: Kathryn McClymond and Sandra Dwyer), Georgia State University, pages 18–35 It is the pervasive, infinite, eternal truth and bliss which does not change, yet is the cause of all changes.

Samkhya denies the final cause of Ishvara. Although the Samkhya school considers the Vedas a reliable source of knowledge, it is an atheistic philosophy according to Paul Deussen and other scholars.Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, , page 39Lloyd Pflueger, Person Purity and Power in Yogasutra, in Theory and Practice of Yoga (Editor: Knut Jacobsen), Motilal Banarsidass, , pages 38-39 A key difference between the Samkhya and Yoga schools, state scholars,Mike Burley (2012), Classical Samkhya and Yoga - An Indian Metaphysics of Experience, Routledge, , page 39, 41 is that the Yoga school accepts a 'personal, yet essentially inactive, deity' or 'personal god'.Kovoor T. Behanan (2002), Yoga: Its Scientific Basis, Dover, , pages 56-58 However, Radhanath Phukan, in the introduction to his translation of the Samkhya Karika of Isvarakrsna has argued that commentators who see the unmanifested as non-conscious make the mistake of regarding Samkhya as atheistic, though Samkhya is equally as theistic as Yoga.

164 Schiller was demanding a course correction in field of metaphysics, putting it at the service of science. For example, to explain the creation of the world out of nothing, or to explain the emergence or evolution of the "higher" parts of the world, Schiller introduces a divine being who might generate the end (i.e. Final Cause) which gives nothingness, lifelessness, and unconscious matter the purpose (and thus potential) of evolving into higher forms: > And thus, so far from dispensing with the need for a Divine First Cause, the > theory of evolution, if only we have the faith in science to carry it to its > conclusion, and the courage to interpret it, proves irrefragably that no > evolution was possible without a pre-existent Deity, and a Deity, moreover, > transcendent, non-material and non-phenomenal. ... [T]he world process is > the working out of an anterior purpose or idea in the divine > consciousness.

In Hinduism, Brahman connotes the highest Universal Principle, the Ultimate Reality in the universe.P. T. Raju (2006), Idealistic Thought of India, Routledge, , page 426 and Conclusion chapter part XII In major schools of Hindu philosophy, it is the material, efficient, formal and final cause of all that exists.Mariasusai Dhavamony (2002), Hindu-Christian Dialogue: Theological Soundings and Perspectives, Rodopi Press, , pages 43–44For dualism school of Hinduism, see: Francis X. Clooney (2010), Hindu God, Christian God: How Reason Helps Break Down the Boundaries between Religions, Oxford University Press, , pages 51–58, 111–115; For monist school of Hinduism, see: B. Martinez-Bedard (2006), Types of Causes in Aristotle and Sankara, Thesis – Department of Religious Studies (Advisors: Kathryn McClymond and Sandra Dwyer), Georgia State University, pages 18–35 It is the pervasive, genderless, infinite, eternal truth and bliss which does not change, yet is the cause of all changes. Brahman as a metaphysical concept is the single binding unity behind diversity in all that exists in the universe.

In De Differentiis Plethon compares Aristotle's and Plato's conceptions of God, arguing that Plato credits God with more exalted powers as "creator of every kind of intelligible and separate substance, and hence of our entire universe", while Aristotle has God as only the motive force of the universe; Plato's God is also the end and final cause of existence, while Aristotle's God is only the end of movement and change. Plethon derides Aristotle for discussing unimportant matters such as shellfish and embryos while failing to credit God with creating the universe, for believing the heavens are composed of a fifth element, and for his view that contemplation was the greatest pleasure; the latter aligned him with Epicurus, Plethon argued, and he attributed this same pleasure-seeking to monks, whom he accused of laziness. Later, in response to Gennadius' Defence of Aristotle, Plethon argued in his Reply that Plato's God was more consistent with Christian doctrine than Aristotle's, and this, according to Darien DeBolt, was probably in part an attempt to escape suspicion of heterodoxy.

John Gaddis has distinguished between exceptional and general causes (following Marc Bloch) and between "routine" and "distinctive links" in causal relationships: "in accounting for what happened at Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, we attach greater importance to the fact that President Truman ordered the dropping of an atomic bomb than to the decision of the Army Air Force to carry out his orders."Gaddis, J. L. (2002) The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past, 64. He has also pointed to the difference between immediate, intermediate and distant causes. For his part, Christopher Lloyd puts forward four "general concepts of causation" used in history: the "metaphysical idealist concept, which asserts that the phenomena of the universe are products of or emanations from an omnipotent being or such final cause"; "the empiricist (or Humean) regularity concept, which is based on the idea of causation being a matter of constant conjunctions of events"; "the functional/teleological/consequential concept", which is "goal-directed, so that goals are causes"; and the "realist, structurist and dispositional approach, which sees relational structures and internal dispositions as the causes of phenomena".