The Scope of Aristotle's Natural Teleology

Mariska Leunissen (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), Aurora Yu (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)

In this meeting, Mariska Leunissen (Professor, UNC Philosophy) and Aurora Yu (graduate student, UNC Philosophy) will discuss the scope of Aristotle's natural teleology. Famously, Aristotle argues that "nature does nothing in vain" and instead "always does what is best for the substantial being of each", but how does he explain the good, the order, and the functionality of the universe as whole? Does he think that the teleology of the whole simply emerges from the goal-directed actions of individual natural entities and/or by the desire present in all natural entities to imitate the Prime Mover as much as possible? Or should we instead suppose that there is a nature of the cosmos itself that is responsible for the joint-organization and structure of all natural entities and should we indeed conceptualize the cosmos as a kind of superorganism? In our discussion, we will provide evidence in favor of each of these views, drawing from both Aristotle's cosmology and his biology, and debate the implications each of these views has for our broader understanding of Aristotle's philosophy and his position in the history of philosophy more broadly.