Aristotle's Notion Of The Four Causes Of Ancient Physics

In addition to Ethics, Aristotle also wrote about physics. Aristotle’s notions of physics are what we know consider to be “ancient physics” because there are a lot of differences when compared to modern physics. Ancient physics has many aspects of how things are caused. According to Aristotle, there are four causes that cause things to happen which he mentioned in his notion of physics. Each cause presents a distinct reason for things to happen, and contributes to the causes differently. They each additionally have an effect on the person who is observing the causes. Modern Physics, on the other hand, is only concerned with a single aspect of causation.
The first cause according to Aristotle is the efficient cause, or in other words the effective cause. The efficient cause is the thing that changes another thing, it is the source that enables change to happen and in other causes it is the source that enables something to be made. For instance, ball hitting another ball causing it …show more content…
In modern science, there is not an end goal to all occurrence in the universe. Instead, there are laws that dictate and predict how things work. What happens merely happens by way of natural laws, and as a result, there is not an end reason. There are other elements of the four causes that modern science disavows. The aspect of mental representation of forms is not included within modern science because modern science does not put an emphasis on what our minds perceive as what makes up certain objects. Instead, modern science merely states that what people see is what they see as it is, and there are no forms involved. Modern science overall uses only the efficient cause because it is only concerned with the reasons why things happen, or in other words, the things that cause other things to happen. Modern science is only concerned with things that cause other things, in which laws and theories can be derived