purposiveness

is the nature of the world: everything is guided in a certain direction from within, by its nature and structure and entelechy (the egg of the hen is internally designed or destined to become not a duck but a chick; the acorn becomes not a willow but an oak).

Everything in the world moves naturally to a specific fulfillment. Of the varied causes which determine an event, the final cause, which determines the purpose, is the most decisive and important. The mistakes and futilities of nature are due to the inertia of matter resisting the forming force of purpose —hence the abortions and monsters that mar the panorama of life. Development is not haphazard or accidental (elsehow could we explain the almost universal appearance and transmission of useful organs?) ; everything is guided in a certain direction from within, by its nature and structure and entelechy; 1 the egg of the hen is internally designed or destined to become not a duck but a chick; the acorn becomes not a willow but an oak. This does not mean for Aristotle that there is an external providence designing earthly structures and events; rather the design is internal, and arises from the type and function of the thing. "Divine Providence coincides completely for Aristotle with the operation of natural causes."

Everything in the world moves naturally to a specific fulfillment. Of the varied causes which determine an event, the final cause, which determines the purpose, is the most decisive and important. The mistakes and futilities of nature are due to the inertia of matter resisting the forming force of purpose —hence the abortions and monsters that mar the panorama of life. Development is not haphazard or accidental (elsehow could we explain the almost universal appearance and transmission of useful organs?) ; everything is guided in a certain direction from within, by its nature and structure and entelechy; 1 the egg of the hen is internally designed or destined to become not a duck but a chick; the acorn becomes not a willow but an oak. This does not mean for Aristotle that there is an external providence designing earthly structures and events; rather the design is internal, and arises from the type and function of the thing. "Divine Providence coincides completely for Aristotle with the operation of natural causes." 2

is at the core of all the functionings of the mind. Let the purpose be addition, and the stimulus "two and three" brings the response, "five"; let the purpose be multiplication, and the same stimulus, the same auditory sensations, "two and three," bring the response, "six."

Let the purpose be addition, and the stimulus "two and three" brings the response, "five"; let the purpose be multiplication, and the same stimulus, the same auditory sensations, "two and three," bring the response, "six." Association of sensations or ideas is not merely by contiguity in space or time, nor by similarity, nor by recency, frequency or intensity of experience; it is above all determined by the purpose of the mind.

purposiveness, n.All

purposiveness