Editing Teleology (section)

=== Platonic ===
In [[Plato|Plato's]] dialogue ''[[Phaedo]]'', [[Socrates]] argues that true explanations for any given physical phenomenon must be teleological. He bemoans those who fail to distinguish between a thing's necessary and sufficient causes, which he identifies respectively as [[Four causes#Material cause|material]] and [[Four causes#Final cause|final]] causes:<ref name=":2">''[[Phaedo]]'', [[Plato]], 98–99</ref>

{{blockquote|Imagine not being able to distinguish the real cause, from that without which the cause would not be able to act, as a cause. It is what the majority appear to do, like people groping in the dark; they call it a cause, thus giving it a name that does not belong to it. That is why one man surrounds the earth with a vortex to make the heavens keep it in place, another makes the air support it like a wide lid. As for their capacity of being in the best place they could be at this very time, this they do not look for, nor do they believe it to have any divine force, but they believe that they will sometime discover a stronger and more immortal Atlas to hold everything together more, and they do not believe that the truly good and 'binding' binds and holds them together.|Plato|title=''[[Phaedo]]''|source=99}}

Socrates here argues that while the materials that compose a body are necessary conditions for its moving or acting in a certain way, they nevertheless cannot be the ''sufficient'' condition for its moving or acting as it does. For example,<ref name=":2" /> if Socrates is sitting in an Athenian prison, the elasticity of his tendons is what allows him to be sitting, and so a physical description of his tendons can be listed as ''necessary conditions'' or ''auxiliary causes'' of his act of sitting.<ref>''[[Phaedo]]'', Plato, 99b</ref><ref>''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]'', Plato, 46c9–d4, 69e6.</ref> However, these are only necessary conditions of Socrates' sitting. To give a physical description of Socrates' body is to say ''that'' Socrates is sitting, but it does not give any idea why ''it came to be'' that he was sitting in the first place. To say why he was sitting and not ''not'' sitting, it is necessary to explain what it is about his sitting that is ''good'', for all things brought about (i.e., all products of actions) are brought about because the actor saw some good in them. Thus, to give an explanation of something is to determine what about it is good. Its goodness is its ''actual cause''—its purpose, ''[[telos (philosophy)|telos]]'' or 'reason for which'.<ref>''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]'', Plato, 27d8–29a.</ref>