QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

highest part, the active intellect, whose sole purpose was knowing which was independent of the
functions of the body. The active intellect came to humans from the outside and remained after
death. Aristotle identified God as form, a mover who did not move, who thought of forms which
were the categories of his own thinking. In certain forms, humans could participate in the life of
gods. In this way, humans could enjoy a clear concept of form, but they were not able to achieve
a clear understanding of formless matter. 115
Aristotle’s idea of development, the presumption that differing immaterial causes could influence
the formation of reality, was a poor match for both the mechanistic thinking of atomists and the
materialism of the Epicureans. The defenders of these teachings did not, according to Aristotle,
understand that the formation of nature was the result of different kinds of causes and that the
student of nature should know them all. Aristotle made a point of distinguishing four different
kinds of explanatory factors or causes: substance, form, mover and purpose. 116 These four classes
of causes were linked to four different types of ’why-question’: (1) Of what material did a thing
consist? (2) What was its essence? (3) What caused it? (4) What purpose is it expected to
fulfil? 117 According to Aristotle, achieving the complete scientific understanding of something
required knowledge of all these causes. Modern science has however attempted to eliminate final
causes which refer to purpose from explanations, and has mainly concentrated on the
investigation of effective causes. Also, any such effect has been thought to result from some
previous event, while Aristotle primarily made reference to the person who brought about the
change.
Aristotle understood the scope of knowledge in a wider manner than Plato. Knowledge could
also be gained from empirical experience, since humans could, with the help of intuition, learn
by experience. It produced knowledge and not just opinion. Reason was able to reach the
universal in the individual, i.e. the form which defined a being’s quality. In shaping his
axiomatic scientific ideals, Aristotle stressed the role of perceptions by the senses in addition to
that of the intellect in forming scientific theories. In his opinion, axioms, basic statements of
scientific discipline, became known by induction based on perceived phenomena. Axioms were a
particular kind of definition which expressed what the beings and things under investigation
actually were. From these basic sentences, new truths conerning reality, i.e. theorems, could be
115
Collingwood 1960, 83-91. Ketonen 1989, 53-54.
116
Aristoteles 1992, 38. Causes are also discussed in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 of the first book of Metaphysics.
Aristoteles 1990, 12-16.
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