Biology Reference
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not important for this discussion. What is important is that, in the picture as
painted above, whether it is applied to the factory as a whole or to a machine
inside the factory, there is a clear conceptual difference between fabricators on
the one hand and their inputs and outputs on the other.
In a computer analogy, P and Q would represent the software which runs
on the hardware L and M. However, further on, when our factory becomes
more complicated, we shall see that this analogy becomes so ambiguous as to
be useless. On the other hand, Aristotelean causal descriptions will prove to be
robust. Let us use such a description to explain how the answer to the question
'why L or M?' differs from that to the question 'why P or Q or R?'. For example,
the question 'why Q?' is explained by considering Q to be the 'effect' of material
cause P and efficient cause L. However, Q can also be considered to have final
cause R (the purpose or function of Q is to serve as material cause for R).
There is no explicit formal cause for Q in the diagram - it could be considered
to be embedded in the properties of L or it could be added to the diagram as
information needed by L to fabricate Q. Note that material, efficient and formal
cause 'flow forward' to Q, whereas final cause 'flows backwards' to Q. This is
always the case. R can be similarly analysed as effect of material cause Q and
efficient cause M; unlike Q, R is only effect and plays no functional role within
the system. Note that, whereas 'why Q?' and 'why R?' can be answered from
within the system (they both have material and efficient causes), 'why P?', 'why
L?', and 'why M?' do not have answers within the system. They can only be
explained in terms of their final cause: P functions as material cause for Q, while
L and M function as efficient causes (for Q and R).
To emphasise that from now on we only consider fabricators inside our
factory, i.e. the components that comprise the factory, I switch to different
symbols (Fig. 4a). In a perfect world where machines do not deteriorate, the
factory will run forever as long as enough input material is available. Consider,
however, that the 'hardware' of the factory, i.e. its fabricators C, have a limited
(a)
(b)
A
C
A
C
D
B
B
X
(c)
(d)
(e)
A
{C
B
,
C
X
}
A
C
X
A
C
{B,
X}
D
X
D
B
D
Figure 4
How to build a factory.
