Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Having a final cause does not require being designed by an intentional agent

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Final causation, as directedness-toward-an-end, is conceptually intelligible only against a background of intentional normativity that fixes what counts as the relevant end.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Natural processes are intrinsically indifferent to outcomes, so any attribution of a telos to them smuggles in a perspective that only intentional agents can supply.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Therefore, biological final causes either reduce to efficient causes (eliminating teleology) or presuppose an intentional grounding, leaving no coherent middle position.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Aquinas argued in Summa Theologiae Q.2 A.3 that things lacking cognition tend toward ends only as directed by some intelligent being, as the arrow requires an archer.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Aristotle's own hylomorphism cannot explain why matter reliably actualizes form-directed endpoints without invoking a nous or divine craftsman analogous to the Timaeus demiurge.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.The causal regularity of biological teleology thus demands an intentional explanation, since undirected matter has no intrinsic mechanism for privileging one outcome as its proper end.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Organisms have final causes
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Organisms did not come to have final causes through the designing activities of any intentional agent
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.