Formal Causation in Aristotle and in Analytic Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science

亚里士多德、分析形而上学和科学哲学中的形式因果关系

• 批准号: 377308279
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Ludger Jansen
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Philosophie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2016-12-31 至 2020-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/377308279?language=en
• 关键词: Formal; Causation; Aristotle; Analytic; Metaphysics

Causation is a basic feature of the structure of nature and thus in the centre of much research in both contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of science. Formal causation, however, which is one of the four traditional kinds of causation distinguished by Aristotle, is currently heavily under-researched and has even fallen into disrepute. One of the reasons for its bad reputation is that on first glance it seems to presuppose Plato's mystical world of unchanging, eternal and detached forms, which is in conflict with the empiricist and evolutionary stance of modern science. At least in a naive version, it seems to be incapable of handling exceptions, and to be explanatory idle. This project is based on the double hypothesis that a mature theory of formal causation is not only able to withstand these objections, but also that without this variety of causation, important phenomena on both the microphysical and the biological level would remain without an explanation. Formal causation is at play whenever a thing has a certain property because it is of a certain kind. Such properties are normally called essential properties. For instance, whales have the capability to breathe with lungs because they are mammals. In the literature, these capabilities are often seen as causal properties of things, and are often called dispositions. There is an extensive and influential trend in contemporary philosophy studying causation in terms of such dispositions, while the question of why things have some dispositions and lack others in the first place has largely been ignored. This project wants to account for this question by means of formal causation. That is, it wants to explore the view that an object having a property can be explained through kind membership. Because a whale is a mammal, and thus has the whale form, it breathes in air with lungs, rather than in water with gills. The goal of this project is to test whether formal causation can be rehabilitated. Our hypothesis is that it can. Crucial to this is the development of a mature theory of formal causation. For this purpose, we will first reconstruct Aristotle's theory of formal causation, taking special consideration of his biological works. Second, we will analyse how a mature theory of formal causation has to look like, in order to answer its critics. For this purpose, we will collect historical criticisms of formal causation, check their validity and, if necessary, suggest suitable amendments to the theory which avoid the objections. Finally, we show that the mature theory fills important gaps within contemporary debates about essence and necessity, dependence and grounding, laws of nature, dispositions, and functions. In outcome, the project shall bridge the gap between Aristotle scholarship and analytic metaphysics and philosophy of science.

因果关系是自然结构的一个基本特征，因此是当代形而上学和科学哲学研究的中心。然而，亚里士多德所区分的四种传统因果关系之一的形式因果关系，目前研究严重不足，甚至已经声名狼借。其坏名声的原因之一是，乍一看，它似乎预设了柏拉图的神秘世界不变，永恒和分离的形式，这与现代科学的进化论和进化论立场相冲突。至少在一个天真的版本中，它似乎无法处理异常，并且是解释性的闲置。这个项目是基于双重假设，一个成熟的理论，正式的因果关系不仅能够抵御这些反对意见，而且，没有这种多样性的因果关系，重要的现象，无论是在微观物理和生物水平将仍然没有一个解释。当一个事物因为属于某种类型而具有某种性质时，形式因果关系就起作用了。这些性质通常称为基本性质。例如，鲸鱼有能力用肺呼吸，因为它们是哺乳动物。在文献中，这些能力通常被视为事物的因果属性，通常被称为倾向。在当代哲学中，有一种广泛而有影响力的趋势，从这种倾向的角度来研究因果关系，而为什么事物首先具有某些倾向而缺乏其他倾向的问题在很大程度上被忽视了。这个项目想通过形式因果关系来解释这个问题。也就是说，它希望探索这样一种观点，即具有属性的对象可以通过种类成员关系来解释。因为鲸鱼是哺乳动物，因此有鲸鱼的外形，它用肺呼吸空气，而不是用鳃呼吸水。这个项目的目标是测试正式因果关系是否可以恢复。我们的假设是，它可以。这一点的关键是发展一个成熟的理论的正式因果关系。为此目的，我们将首先重建亚里士多德的形式因果关系理论，特别考虑他的生物学著作。其次，我们将分析一个成熟的形式因果关系理论应该是什么样的，以回应对其的批评。为此，我们将收集历史上对形式因果关系的批评，检查它们的有效性，如果必要的话，建议适当的修正理论，避免异议。最后，我们表明，成熟的理论填补了重要的差距，在当代辩论的本质和必要性，依赖性和接地，自然规律，性格和功能。最后，本计画将可弥补亚里士多德学术与分析形而上学及科学哲学之间的差距。