Friday, December 29, 2017

Experimentalism and Causality

Whitehead recognizes two types of Causality--Efficient and Teleological.  Accordingly, his concept of Organism is defined in terms of the two, as is Kant's.  Now, in his system, Teleological Causality is the source of Novelty, i. e. an Impulse that initiates a novel Concrescence is a reaction to the insufficiency of the given.  Consequently, Skill and Method, as opposed to Novelty, can only be modes of Efficient Causality, i. e. mechanical procedures.  So, he cannot consider the possible roles of either Formal or Material Causality, e. g. that Organism is a Hylomorphic concept.  Likewise, he cannot consider that Skill and Method are modes of Formal Causality, the Matter of which are various motions, e. g. rolling a ball down an incline, blowing into a saxophone, etc.  So, another false dichotomy that leads to his criticism of Experimentalism is that of Teleological Causality vs. Efficient Causality.

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