DID ARISTOTLE HOLD A THEORY OF EXPLANATION? SOME OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE SCOPE OF THE ARISTOTELIAN NOTION OF αιτία
Keywords:
Aristotle, Causation, Explanation, ChanceAbstract
Aristotle introduces in Physics II 3 what has been commonly called his theory of the four causes. However, in recent decades it has become equally common the idea that what Aristotle does in fact in this, and other related passages, is to introduce a theory about the different types of explanations we could offer for phenomena in the natural world. In this article, I argue against such an interpretation of the Aristotelian notion of presenting two arguments to this effect. The first one develops an objection from the textual evidence that is often invoked in support of that view. The second and more important one shows the inadequacy of such a view in order to understand the relation that Aristotle envisages between chance and causation.
Downloads
References
ACKRILL, J. (ed.). “Essays on Plato and Aristotle”. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
ACKRILL, J. “Aristotle’s Theory of Definition: Some Questions on Posterior Analytics II, 8-10”. En J. Ackrill (ed.), 2001. pp. 110–30.
ALEJANDRO DE AFRODISIA. “Alexandri Aphrodisiensis, In Aristotelis Metaphysica Commentaria”. Ed. M.. Hayduck, M. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2011 (=1891).
ANGIONI, L. “Causality and Coextensiveness in Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics 1.13”. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 54, pp. 159-185, 2018.
ALLEN, J. “Aristotle on Chance and Accidental Cause”. En M. Leunissen (ed.), 2015. pp. 66-87.
ANNAS, J. “Aristotle on Inefficient Causes”. Philosophical Quarterly 32, pp. 311-26, 1982.
ARISTÓTELES. “De la Génération des Animaux” (GA). Ed. P. Louis. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1961.
______“Física I-II”. Traducción, Introducción y Comentario de Marcelo Boeri. Buenos Aires: Biblos, 1993.
______“Histoire des animaux” (HA). Ed. P. Louis. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, Vol. 1: 1964; 2: 1968; 3: 1969.
______“Metaphysics”. A Revised Text with Introduction and Commentary by W.D. Ross. Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, 1981 (=1924).
______“Metaphysics. Books G, D, E”. Translated with notes by C. Kirwan, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
______“Metafísica”. Ed. Hernán Zuchi. Buenos Aires: DeBolsillo, 2004.
______“Posterior Analytics”. Translation with Comentary by Jonathan Barnes. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993 (Second Edition).
______“Physica”. Ed. W.D. Ross. Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, 1966.
______“Physics I-II”. Translated with Introduction and Commentary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
______ “Prior and Posterior Analytics”. A Revised Text with Introduction and Comentary by W.D. Ross. Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press, 1949.
AUDI, P. “Grounding: Towards a Theory of the In-virtue Relation”. Journal of Philosophy, 109, pp. 685-711, 2012.
AVGENIS, N. y PEONIDIS, F. (eds.). “Aristotle on Logic, Language and Science”. Thessaloniki: Sakkoulas Publications, 1998.
BARNES, J., SCHOFIELD, M. & SORABJI, R. (eds.). “Articles on Aristotle Vol. 1. Science”. London: Duckworth, 1975.
CHARLES, D. “Teleological Causation in the Physics”. En L. Judson (ed.), 1991. pp. 101-128.
______“Aristotle’s Philosophy of Action”. London: Duckworth, 1984.
FREDE, D., 1985. “Aristotle on the limits of Determinism: Accidental Causes in Metaphysics E 3”. En A. Gotthelf (ed.), 1985. pp. 207-25.
FREELAND, C. “Accidental Causes and Real Explanations” En L. Judson (ed.), 1991. pp. 49-72.
FRENCH, P., UEHLING, Jr., T. & WETTSTEIN, H. (eds.).. Realism and Anti-Realism, Midwest Studies in Philosophy 12, 1988.
GARCÍA-LORENTE, J. “La ciencia de los principios y de las causas primeras en el libro primero de la Metafísica”. Anales del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía 33, pp. 11-31, 2016.
GOTTHELF, A. (ed.). “Aristotle on Nature and Living Things”. Pittsburgh: Mathesis Publications, 1985.
HOCUTT, M. “Aristotle´s Four Becauses”, Philosophy 49, pp. 385-399, 1974.
IRWIN, T. “Aristotle’s First Principles”. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988.
JUDSON, L. “What Can Happen When You Eat Pungent Food”. En N. Avgenis y F. Peonidis (eds,), 1998. pp. 185-204.
_______(ed.). “Aristotle´s Physics. A Collection of Essays”. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991.
______“Chance and «Always or For the Most Part»”. En L. Judson (ed.), 1991. pp. 73-99.
KELSEY, S. “The Argument of ‘Metaphysics’ vi 3”. Ancient Philosophy 24, pp. 119-34, 2004.
KIM, J. “Mind in a Physical World. An Essay on the Mind-Body Problem and Mental Causation”. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998.
______“Explanatory Realism, Causal Realism and Explanatory Exclusion”. En P. French, T. Uehling y H Wettstein (eds.), pp. 225-39. 1988.
LENNOX, J. “Aristotle on Chance”. Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 66, pp. 52-60, 1984.
______“Teleology, chance, and Aristotle’s Theory of Spontaneous Generation”. Journal of the History of Philosophy 20, pp. 219-38, 1982.
LEUNISSEN, M. (ed.). “Aristotle’s Physics. A Critical Guide”. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
LEUNISSEN, M. “Explanation and Teleology in Aristotle’s Science of Nature”. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
MADIGAN, A. “Metaphysics’ E 3: a modest proposal”. Phronesis 29, pp. 123-36, 1984
MALINK, M. “Aristotle on Principles as Elements”. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 53, pp. 163-214, 2017.
MASI, F.G. y MASO, S. (eds.). “Fate, Chance, Fortune in Ancient Thought”. Amsterdam: Hakkert, 2013.
MCKIRAHAN, R. “Principles and Proofs: Aristotle's Theory of Demonstrative Science”. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.
MORAVCSIK, J. “What Makes Reality Inteligible? Reflections on Aristotle’s Theory of Aitia”. En L. Judson (ed.), 1991. pp. 31-47.
NATALI, C. “Aitia in Plato and Aristotle. from Everyday Language to Technical Vocabulary”. En Viano et al. (eds.), 2013. pp. 39-73.
NIELSEN, K. “Spicy Food as Cause of Death. Coincidence and Necessity in Metaphysics E 2-3”. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy 52, pp. 303-42, 2017.
QUARANTOTTO, D. “Causa finale, sostanza, essenza in Aristotele”. Napoli: Bibliopolis, 2005.
ROSSI, G. “Chance and Accidental Causes in Aristotle: Metaph. E 3 in the Light of the Concept of Tyche”. En F. G. Masi y S. Maso (eds.), 2013. pp. 63-82.
RUBEN, D-H. Explaning Explanation, London: Routledge, 1990.
SCHAFFER, J. “Grounding in the Image of Causation”, Philosophical Studies 43, pp. 201-10, 2016.
SORABJI, R. “Necesidad, Causa y Culpa. Perspectivas de la Teoría de Aristóteles”. México: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, traducción de Ricardo Salles, 2003 (=1980).
STEIN, N. “Aristotle’s Causal Pluralism”. Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 93, pp. 121-47, 2011.
______“Causation and Explanation in Aristotle”, Philosophy Compass 6, pp. 699-707, 2011a.
VIANO, C., NATALI, C. y ZINGANO, M. (eds.). “Aitia I. Les quatres causes d’Aristote: origines et interpretations”. Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2013.
VLASTOS, G. “Reasons and Causes in the Phaedo”. The Philosophical Review 78, pp. 291-325, 1969.
WIELAND, W. “The Problem of Teleology”. En J. Barnes, M. Schofield y R. Sorabji (eds.), 1975. pp. 141-160.
