more from René Descartes

Single Idea 2280

[catalogued under 26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 2. Natural Purpose / a. Final purpose]

Full Idea

God can make unnumerable things whose cause escapes me, and for this reason alone the entire class of causes which people customarily derive from a thing's "end", I judge to be utterly useless in physics.

Gist of Idea

Many causes are quite baffling, so it is absurd to deduce causes from final purposes

Source

René Descartes (Meditations [1641], §4.55)

Book Reference

Descartes,René: 'Discourse on Method/The Meditations', ed/tr. Sutcliffe,F.E. [Penguin 1968], p.135


A Reaction

anti-Aristotle