Aristotle explains the principle of teleology by suggesting that human beings, just like animals and plants, are guided by the concept of nature. The nature of a thing is identified by its final cause. The outcome of a plant or animal, in the long run, is what causes its nature. To explain this, Aristotle gives the example of an acorn which tends to grow into an oak rather than a toad. The acorn grows this way, not by chance, but so that the tree can exist by nature.
The question “why” seeks to answer the cause of something. According to Aristotle, there are four types of answers to this question. For instance, if asked why you call a statue so, one can say because it is made of marble (its material cause), another person can say that it is because it has been shaped like a hero (its formal cause), another answer can be that it was sculpted by a statue professional, and another answer may be that the person who sculpted it wanted to depict a hero using marble (The final cause.) This explanation outlines the four causes. The formal cause of a human being is the soul.
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