A tradition of explanations of natural change drawing on Aristotle's distinctions among matter, form, capacities and causes. Its medieval and early modern versions were interpreted traditions, not identical endorsements of every ancient conclusion.[ref]
Aristotle's four explanatory questions concern what something is made of, its form, the source of change and its end. The final cause is the last of these; this is not a list of four modern interacting forces.[ref]
The end for the sake of which a process or organized activity is explained in Aristotelian natural philosophy. Such an explanation should be distinguished from a modern dynamical force law.
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