"Four Causes" And The Transformation Of Scientific Worldview

The revolution of classical science to Aristotle's worldview and the revolution of system science to classical scientific worldview have created different scientific worldview and scientific world picture.As an attempt to reflect on the transformation of scientific worldview and development of science with the help of the "four causes" theory,this article mainly discusses: First,under what reason and how is the new science shaping its world picture to complete the transformation of the scientific worldview? Second,how does the transformation of the scientific worldview reflect the diversity and unity of science development?With the help of the "four causes" theory to examine the history of scientific thought,it can be seen that the new science,through its own beliefs and the needs of the times,shapes its world picture in a way of rebellion and inheritance to complete the transformation of the scientific worldview.Rebellion means questioning,criticizing and subverting traditional authority.Inheritance means that the new theory has far-reaching sources.The traditional material cause,qualitative form cause,internal motivation cause and purpose cause of Aristotle's tradition cannot satisfy the classical science's belief in the harmonious picture of mathematics and the demand of mechanical civilization for the mathematical calculation of motion phenomena.Therefore,the classical science proposes a one-dimensional material cause,quantitative form cause,external motivation cause and purpose cause,and has completed the mathematization of the natural science,creating a mechanical world picture in which God creates a perfect self-sufficient machine with perfect reason.There are also many problems in the cosmology of classical scientific mechanism.The rigid material cause of classical science,and form cause that can only quantify the linear phenomena,and the external motivation and purpose causes that ignore the inner life factors,create the opposition between man and nature,disregarding the value of life,and fail to meet the needs of the era for the orderly interpretation of nonlinear phenomena.Therefore,the system science proposes,in a targeted manner,the active material cause,form cause that can quantify the nonlinear phenomena,motivation and purpose causes of intrinsic internal and external interaction,creating an orderly world picture of organicism in which the living organisms collaborate and compete with each other according to their own purposes.Based on the belief of Mathematicalization of natural science,classical science often declares its Platonism position and incorporates Democritus' s atomism.Based on the belief of understanding the complexity of life phenomena,systems science often cites Aristotle's philosophical theory to explain its own views.Therefore,the cosmic picture of classical science inherits the traditions of Pythagoras-Plato and Democritus,both of which attach great importance to the study of mathematics.The cosmic picture of system science is inherited from Aristotle's tradition,while Aristotle's tradition attaches great importance to the study of biological phenomena.The rebellion and inheritance of the transformation of the scientific worldview reflects the diversity of science development.Inheritance embodies the diversity of the source of scientific worldview,and rebellion creates a richer connotation of the scientific worldview.Different traditions have different attitudes towards the selection and suspension of the "four causes".The classical science,which inherits the traditions of Plato and Democritus,attaches importance to material causes,form cause and mechanical motivation cause in specific scientific research,and suspends the purpose cause and the first-driving motivation cause.However,system science inherited from the Aristotle's tradition,pays attention to purpose,motivation and form causes,while suspending material cause.The different world pictures created by classical science and system science have their own functions.The mechanical world picture is good at explaining material phenomena,while the world picture oforganicism is good at explaining life phenomena.No matter what kind of diversity is created by the transformation of the scientific worldview,they all contain certain unity.From the perspective of material cause,the changing universe is inherently natural,which is the premise of the scientific world picture.From the perspective of form cause,the changing universe is related to the essential laws behind it,which is another premise of the scientific world picture.From the perspective of motivation cause,the scientific world picture should be predictable.From the perspective of purpose cause,the scientific world picture focuses on the validity of the interpretation theory.This concern for effectiveness also shows that there are two limits to scientific activities.First,scientific activities will limit their own research situations and abandon the ultimate questioning.Second,there are always black box factors in scientific activities.