more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
Each thing that has a function is for the sake of that function.
Clarification
'Function' is the Greek word 'ergon'
Gist of Idea
Each thing that has a function is for the sake of that function
Source
Aristotle (On the Heavens [c.336 BCE], 286a08)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'On the Heavens I and II', ed/tr. Leggatt,Stuart [Aris and Phillips 1995], p.121
A Reaction
This is the central idea of Aristotle's Ethics. Did it originate with Plato, or Socrates, the young pupil Aristotle? I suspect the strong influence of Aristotle on later Plato. A major idea. Functions link the facts to life.
| 5838 | A well-made dung basket is fine, and a badly-made gold shield is base, because of function [Socrates, by Xenophon] |
| 2094 | A thing's function is what it alone can do, or what it does better than other things [Plato] |
| 2095 | If something has a function then it has a state of being good [Plato] |
| 33 | Each named function has a distinctive excellence attached to it [Aristotle] |
| 23909 | Wearing a shoe is its intrinsic use, and selling it (as a shoe) is its coincidental use [Aristotle] |
| 398 | Each thing that has a function is for the sake of that function [Aristotle] |
| 15772 | A thing's active function is its end [Aristotle] |
| 22381 | Being a good father seems to depend on intentions, rather than actual abilities [Foot] |
| 3505 | The function of a heart depends on what we want it to do [Searle] |