| | Final Causality in Nature and Human Affairs
by Terence E. Marshall , ALBERT E. GUNN HASSING, Richard F., ed. Final Causality in Nature and Human Affairs. Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, vol. 30. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1997. 282 pp. Cloth, $59.95--The range of this volume, and thus the task especially of its editor, is enormous: to confront the question of teleology from Plato through Aristotle, Maimonides, Aquinas's commentaries on the Physics, Copernicus, Machiavelli, Bacon, Galileo, Descartes, Spinoza, and Newton, to Kant, Hegel, and then to Einstein, and to recent theories of anthropic-principle cosmology or else versions of the many-worlds cosmology of chance and necessity, and then to Niels Bohr and quantum mechanics, and finally to the problem of current molecular-biological theories of evolution. Having received his doctorate in theoretical physics from Cornell prior to turning to his studies of philosophy, the volume's editor, Richard Hassing, is one of the very rare persons capable today of attempting such an overview of natural science, metaphysics, and the study of human things. Such an undertaking is daunting; but the endeavor is both fundamental and necessary for contemporary philosophy, and a study of the essays in this collection is a richly rewarding source of reflection based on the key issue its authors so thoughtfully, sometimes brilliantly, confront. That issue concerns the crisis posed, for the intelligibility of human experience, by the rejection of classical teleological explanations on the part of modern natural science (pp. 7, 10-22, 86, 230). Such a rejection entails forsaking a reasonable basis for the idea of the human good according to nature, and thus for the ideas of natural right or natural law as principles of practice (pp. 86, 107 and following, 239). Accordingly, confronting this issue requires, it seems, not only that one show, contrary to postmodern or Heideggerian philosophy, that the whole is intelligible, but also that in some sense the whole is good. In addition to the questions raised from the replacement of classical natural philosophy by explanations of nature in terms of mathematical laws of physics, the volume's editor focuses especially, in the introductory chapter, on the significance of modern views of nature derived from Francis Bacon's Machiavellian aim to replace the classical perception of nature, in terms of the quest for eternal ends, by "transformism" or by "the proclaimed malleability of nature and human nature to human, not divine, power" (p. 32, emphasis in the original; see also p. 41 on Newton and p. 235). The structure of the volume moves from Hassing's lengthy introductory essay, focusing first on Socrates' turn away from his Pre-Socratic reductionism and toward the question of the ideas and of the good (pp. 2-3; see Phaedo 98b8-99d1 and Republic 6, 505a2, 505ri11-el), then on Aristotle's Physics and the medieval commentaries thereon, and from there on Machiavelli's rejection of the classical understanding of man, and on Bacon's critique of the Idola mentis in the New Organon, followed by examinations of the early modern scientific project outlined in the writings of Descartes's Le Monde, Newton's Principia, and Laplace's Philosophical Essay on Probabilities. The ensuing chapters provide detailed examinations of specific issues deriving from the problems outlined in the introduction. As is well summarized on the book's jacket: William Wallace examines Aristotle's definition of nature in relation to extrinsic efficient and final causes, and the adequacy of Aristotle's account of nature to questions of ultimate efficient and final causes. Allan Gotthelf considers the meaning of teleological explanation in Aristotle's biology and reviews contemporary interpretations thereof. Francis Slade discusses the differences between natural ends and human purposes, and the implications of that difference for ethics and politics. Ernest Fortin explores the relations between medieval natural law and modern natural right in the political theory of liberal democracy. Richard Velkley examines Kant's endeavor to supply, on modern grounds, the defects of the modern project of self-determination and mastery of nature; the resulting status of fundamental contingencies in the Kantian philosophy; and the crucial significance of the Critique of Judgment in Kant's distinctive attempt to account for the unity of the human being in terms of ultimate contingencies. David White discusses Kant's understanding of organism, or natural purpose, in the Critique of Judgment, and how the concept of natural purpose regulates judgment. John Burbidge explores the logic of Hegel's teleology, "the cunning of reason," at work within end-less human history. John Leslie considers the argumentation for, predictive powers of, and fundamental alternatives to anthropic principles in contemporary cosmology. ...
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