As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently was reminded of papers I wrote back in college for some philosophy courses that oddly deal directly with my professional life as a User Experience Designer. This next paper really resonated with my internal Interaction Designer, as it deals mainly with function and behavior. Please bare in mind that my skills as a writer were not the greatest back then and I’m slightly embarrassed at the state in which I found them, regardless I hope you enjoy.
The Philosophy of Function
After looking over chapter seven in Nicomachean Ethics book one, I can’t see how one can relate the final cause to Aristotle’s function argument. The final cause opens the door to giving things in nature ambition, or to some extent desire. It implies that something is drawing an acorn nut into growing into a fully grown tree. There are a lot of unseen forces at work here, to pull a nut into a tree from some place unseen. I see the function argument as something different though, it gives a nut meaning or a man meaning. In the coming paragraphs I will show that there is a way to apply the function argument to nature, how you can apply the function argument to man, and the differences between the final cause and the function argument. These paragraphs will show how the function argument can be separated by the final cause and therefore be free of its scientific objections.
For us to be able to see how nature’s creatures and nature itself has a function we will need to examine various creatures, plants, and aspects of nature that plays a certain function to the world around it. There are many insects around the world that play a key role in their environment. They help protect various planets and help clean their environment around them. Coleptera.org is an organization devoted to the study of everything there is to know about beetles. In there overall description of what beetles are they give examples of what roles they play in their environment. There are a class of beetles that have the function of pollinating flowers and trees. Without this function many flowers would not be here today. Another class of function of a different class of beetles is to clean up the waste of other animals. The dung beetles feed on and reproduce in the dung of plant eating animals. By doing this function they get rid of millions of tons of dung in a year. If the dung beetles didn’t do its function, our forests would have been overrun and smothered with the dung of herbivores. We owe a lot to the function of the dung beetle, and many other beetle species that are out there.
Plants have many different functions depending on what they grow and where they grow. The Rice Unix Facility has a side site that discusses the Staghorn Cacti. The Staghorn has a protective function in its nectar that keeps it safe from insects. This nectar attracts other insects that will attack, remove, prey upon, or parasitize herbivores that would eat the cactus. The function of creating the nectar protects the all Staghorn Cacti from attack. This is a function just like out own eyes, ears, and hands. Since it is acceptable the since the eyes, ears, and hands have functions then so must we. Then it must be acceptable that since a part of the Cacti has the function of creating the nectar then so must the Staghorn Cacti have a function overall.
Finally there are aspects of nature that’s function keeps our world going basically. The North Atlantic Current, or the Gulf Stream, contributes to the stability to much of our world’s weather. What the Gulf Stream does basically according to the history of the Gulf Stream is bring warm water and air from the Gulf of Mexico all the way up to the British Isles. This brings warm weather to the eastern part of Canada and the western part of Europe. Theoretically if the Gulf Stream did not do this then this regions would just be extension of the Ice cap at the North Pole. If the Gulf Stream did not perform this function naturally then all the people that live in these regions would be out of a home. There are many functions apparent in nature if you just take the time to look for them. They are automatic in some cases in others; it requires certain creatures to maintain the balance.
Aristotle claims that the function of man is to be rationional; this is what makes a man good. The accepted way a proving this by showing that our parts have a function so we must have one since our parts do. The argument that seems weak states that since a carpenter or tanner has a defined function so must the man that does the carpentry or tanning. There is no dispute that carpentry and tanning have a function that is their own, but does that mean since someone is doing that function they have a function themselves. I happen to believe that it does for two reasons. The first is easy enough to state and explain. Aristotle says that the function of man is to be rationional, well the activity of carpentry and tanning requires a certain amount of rational thought doesn’t it? When a carpenter goes to plan out a new chair style or chest style is must first sit down and rationally think out how it will look and be built. The design does not just come to him by accident or happenstance. The advance and working of carpentry and tanning require a person that possesses rationional thought to practice. So from my point of view you cannot have one without the other.
Some could say that the act of carpentry or tannery can be separated from the carpenter or tanner. I don’t believe that this is possible, for if you ask any man who has spent his life doing something he will tell you that what he does is as much a part of him as the air he breaths. Aristotle states that to live a life of rationality means living a life of happiness. Well, another great man, Ben Franklin, once said “It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man.”(www.brainyqoutes.com) I don’t see how one can say that a man who does carpentry or tannery is not a working man. By using this quote as a basis of an argument, for a man to be happy he must work. To work he must do a craft. Since rational thought is happiness, then working is rational thought played out. The function of carpentry and tannery is then based upon the function of the man, not the other way around.
There are some distinct difference between the final cause and the function argument that you can use the separately. The final cause states that there is some end the drive all action. The action of kicking the table is to get to the end which is kicking the table. It requires to some extent a desire or ambition to get to a certain end. This can easily be seen in the actions of humans and even in some animals. It gets fishy when it is applied to nature. Saying that there is a desire for the grass to grow, that it wishes to grow into a fully grown stalk, can open the door to a lot of superstition. Thought like these could have been the reason why the Native American Indians worshipped nature’s spirits. Many other cultures can see the same idea in their religion or faith.
Function has a definition that is different than a cause though. A function helps or creates an end, but is not depended on the end. I can create robot with a hammer arm, with the clear function of hammering an object. The end object does not matter to the robot because its only has the function of hammering. A river, given enough time, can create a new grand canyon with the current of its waters. The end of the river is not to do this, but its function makes it so. I see a function as a reason why something does something, not every function needs an end for it to happen. A function does not desire or have ambition to do its duty it just does it, because of this you can see the line the separates the final cause and the function argument.
I started this paper with the desire to make a line that would separate Aristotle’s function argument and his final cause. I looked at nature and it inabilities to see what there function is in the overall picture. I looked at the working man and saw how his work is what defines him and vice versa. Finally I looked at my idea of what a cause and a function is and how they can be seen as separate things. I can see how the scientifically community can throughout the final cause, to a certain extent. Yet, I personally can see a difference between Aristotle’s arguments and with the paper I hope you can too.
Work Cited
- Book: “Complete Works of Aristotle” Edited: Jonathan Barnes. Princeton University Press, 1995.
- Website: Coleoptera.org, Article: What is a beetle?
- Website: Brainy Quotes, Benjamin Franklin Quotes.
- Website: A Natural History of Extrafloral Nectar-Collecting Ants in the Sonoran Desert Rice University. < http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bws/efns.html >