NATURE has been defined as a ‘principle of motion and change’, and it is the subject of our inquiry. We must therefore see that we understand the meaning of ‘motion’; for if it were unknown, the meaning of ‘nature’ too would be unknown. When we have determined the nature of motion, our next task will be to attack in the same way the terms, which are involved in it.” — Aristotle 350 BC. PHYSICS. 

The teleology paradigm

Aristotle’s principle of motion in nature was based on his doctrine of The Four Causes of Motion. The Formal Cause, the Material Cause, the Efficient Cause, and the Final Cause. The Material Cause is constituted of the matter from which it is made, the Efficient Cause is what sets it in motion, the Formal Cause is what gives it a terminus of development and the Final Cause constitutes its end and purpose. 

Teleology is the study of ends, purposes, and goals. In a history timeline with a beginning and an end, all historical events derive from their ends or purposes; that is, all events in history are directed by the future. A final movement is driving a movement, from a first movement to the final movement.

Chain of events

“EVERYTHING that is in motion must be moved by something. For if it has not the source of its motion it is evident that it is moved by something other than itself, for there must be something else that moves it. Since everything that is in motion must be moved by something, let us take the case in which a thing is in locomotion and is moved by something that is itself in motion, and that again is moved by something else that is in motion, and that by something else, and so on continually: then the series cannot go on to infinity, but there must be some first movement». –Aristotle. 350 BC. PHYSICS. 

The final cause is a last cause on a chain of earlier movements. In this chain of movements, every movement has a final cause from other movements. Movements have a deterministic “Domino” effect in a chain of movements. In this chain of movements, there must be a first movement and a final movement. 

The chain of events, from planets positions to movements in nature, represents a deterministic view of nature, controlled by the oscillating objects in the sky. An invisible force can control a perfect sun period, the moon period, the planets periods, and star periods. Oscillating object in the sky became time-references. Oscillating time-references in the sky, behave like a set of clocks, from hours to the Great year. The 26000-year precession cycle. In a deterministic believe system, cycle events in the sky, became references to real events on earth.

Teleology implication

Aristotle’s principle of motion in nature was a holistic believe-system based om observations. A scientific framework that influenced the scientific world up to our time. 

Modern teleology

Modern science can observe the universe back to the big bang, the first movement. The observed chain of movements reveals that the information is preserved from the big bang to black holes. The information paradox is the idea, that movement information may disappear in a black hole. In a future driven motion, black holes are moving the universe to its final end. 

Survival of the fittest, is the final cause of an ecosystem. A consumer market of goods represents a final cause in a production system. A chain of events looks deterministic when the events are observed back in time. To compute future events, we must identify something deterministic, that leads to a final cause.

Modern science started when Isaac Newton (1642-1727) introduced a ballistic view of movements.