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Home > Quote from "Minute Logic: Chapter II. Prelogical Notions. Section I. Classification of the Sciences (Logic II)"

Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘Final Cause’ (pub. 23.07.15-15:15). Quote in M. Bergman & S. Paavola (Eds.), The Commens Dictionary: Peirce's Terms in His Own Words. New Edition. Retrieved from http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-minute-logic-chapter-ii-prelogical-notions-section-i-classification-scienc-24.
Term: 
Final Cause
Quote: 

It is […] a widespread error to think that a “final cause” is necessarily a purpose. A purpose is merely that form of final cause which is most familiar to our experience. The signification of the phrase “final cause” must be determined by its use in the statement of Aristotle that all causation divides into two grand branches, the efficient, or forceful; and the ideal, or final.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1902). Minute Logic: Chapter II. Prelogical Notions. Section I. Classification of the Sciences (Logic II). MS [R] 427.
References: 
EP 2:120; CP 1.211
Date of Quote: 
1902
URL: 

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