Platonic and Aristotelian Roots of Teleological Arguments

Abstract

Abstract The authors contributing to this anthology focus on a variety of issues concerning ‘functional explanations’ in both biology and psychology. ‘Functional explanation’ is our chosen term because ‘teleological explanation’ is thought to imply backwards causation or bizarre ontological categories (for example, vital forces) attributable to the teleological theories of Plato and Aristotle. Functional explanation is not so imbued and hence, as opposed to teleology, is an appropriate topic for naturalistic analysis. However, scholars of ancient Greek science and metaphysics know that Aristotle’s and Plato’s teleologies are richer and more interesting than many of the writers on modern functional explanation realize.