more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
A cause which is called final is nothing else but human desire, in so far as it is considered as the origin or cause of anything.
Gist of Idea
A final cause is simply a human desire
Source
Baruch de Spinoza (The Ethics [1675], IV Pref)
Book Ref
Spinoza,Benedict de: 'Ethics, Improvement of Understanding, Letters', ed/tr. Elwes,R [Dover 1955], p.188
A Reaction
A rather vicious swipe at Aristotle! It chimes in with the modern scientific view of the world (mostly associated with Hume), that nature has no intrinsic values or aims. On the large scale, Spinoza is right, but nature can still show us what has value.
| 8332 | The four causes are the material, the form, the source, and the end [Aristotle] |
| 4850 | A final cause is simply a human desire [Spinoza] |
| 5059 | Power rules in efficient causes, but wisdom rules in connecting them to final causes [Leibniz] |
| 4579 | The idea of a final cause is very uncertain and unphilosophical [Hume] |
| 14865 | We do not know the nature of one single causality [Nietzsche] |