Aristotle on Levels of Explanation in Natural Science (C. Byrne)

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Christopher Byrne

(St. Francis Xavier University)

Aristotle on Levels of Explanation in Natural Science

Source : Wikipedia

Aristotle argues that, in addition to the common axioms that govern all of the sciences, every science has its own first principles that apply only to the subject matter of that science.  Aristotle also emphasizes that, in the case of perceptible objects, it is the job of scientific explanation to identify not only the causal agents, but also the causal powers that produce the effects to be explained.  Finally, Aristotle argues that individual perceptible objects are composed of distinct, mutually irreducible formal and material principles, each of which is responsible for some aspects of their behaviour.  Given this composite nature, several different sciences are required to explain the behaviour of any given perceptible object, and part of the difficulty in knowing which science to apply lies in determining at what level the behaviour in question is to be explained.  These principles are applied to Aristotle's views on reductive materialism and teleology.

Friday, January 24th, 2014

3:00pm

University of Ottawa

Desmarais Hall (55, Laurier East)

Room 8161