Project description DEENESFRITPL Aristotelian metaphysics today Causation plays a central role in many fields of science. Aristotelian formal causation, long neglected, offers important conceptual resources to the many areas of philosophy of science: philosophy of physics, chemistry, biology, and beyond. Formal causation promises to provide the unique features of kind-based explanations to philosophy of science as well as metaphysics. As such, the theory of formal causation developed under the Formal Causation I project (funded by the German Research Foundation) validates the applicability of formal causation to contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of science. The EU-funded FCRE project will conduct a study focused on relations to possible rivals and extensions and establish formal causation as a type of metaphysical explanation. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective Causation is a basic feature of the structure of nature and thus in the centre of much research. Hitherto, however, the distinctive role and applicability of formal causation has been underappreciated. Formal causation is at play whenever a thing has a certain essential property because it is of a certain kind. E.g. that a particle has negative charge because it is an electron. Such kind-based explanations are ubiquitous across the sciences, and references to kinds are often indispensable. More controversially, such kind-based explanations point towards a specific variant of causation. During Formal Causation I (funded by DFG), I developed a mature theory of formal causation that would justify its applicability to contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of science. (1) I reconstructed Aristotle’s account, especially the non-hylomorphic variant with fewer ontological commitments found in his Posterior Analytics. (2) I applied the account of formal causation to topics of contemporary interest. Especially, (i) developed the non-modal account of essence such that it is able to deal with exceptions, (ii) discovered that in a case of formal causation the form is a full immediate ground, (iii) defended an account of laws of nature. Further work remains, both on the relation to possible rivals of formal causation, and on extensions. This project will investigate (1) Aristotle’s originally intended scope of the formal cause and his thoughts on the relations between the four causes distinguished by him; (2) the application of formal causation to occurrent entities like processes and events; (3) whether hylomorphic compounds can be thought of as mereological compounds of different parts, and if so what the relation to formal causation is; (4) whether formal causation should be thought of as a variety of downward causation and relate this to the debate about mechanistic explanations; and (5) formal causation as a type of metaphysical explanation. Fields of science humanitiesphilosophy, ethics and religionphilosophymetaphysicssocial scienceslaw Keywords Aristotle Form Causation Essence Occurrants Processes Hylomorphism Downward causation New mechanists Metaphysical explanation Programme(s) H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Main Programme H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility Topic(s) MSCA-IF-2020 - Individual Fellowships Call for proposal H2020-MSCA-IF-2020 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF) Coordinator THE UNIVERSITY OF READING Net EU contribution € 212 933,76 Address WHITEKNIGHTS CAMPUS WHITEKNIGHTS HOUSE RG6 6AH Reading United Kingdom See on map Region South East (England) Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Berkshire Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 212 933,76