PHI 1103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Eudaimonia, Teleology, Ultimate Human
9 May 2016
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Fire / air naturally move upwards, water / earth downwards, each seeking its natural place. Heavier things fall faster, in proportion to weight. Everything aims at some end has some purpose. Everything strives towards its eternal place, or desire to reach its. Hence, heavenly bodies move in circles, and must be made of a fifth element aether. Aristotle identified four causes as the explanation for anything (or event) that is. How and why something came to be is understood by examining its four causes. The material cause: the material form which something is generated and out of which it is made. The good (goal) is that at which everything aims. Two types of good: instrumental good: that which is sought after as a means to something else, ultimate good: that which is sought after for its own sake. If this is true, then all distinctively human actins aim at some good. And some other goods are means to an end.
