“Then
is there nothing which can be justly called chance, nor anything ‘by chance’?”
I asked. “Or is there anything which common people know not, but which those
words do suit?”
“My
philosopher, Aristotle, defined it in his Physics shortly and well-nigh truly.”
“How?”
I asked.
“Whenever
anything is done with one intention, but something else, other than was
intended, results from certain causes, that is called chance: as, for instance,
if a man digs the ground for the sake of cultivating it, and finds a heap of
buried gold.
“Such
a thing is believed to have happened by chance, but it does not come from
nothing, for it has its own causes, whose unforeseen and unexpected coincidence
seem to have brought about a chance.
“For
if the cultivator did not dig the ground, if the owner had not buried his
money, the gold would not have been found. These are the causes of the chance
piece of good fortune, which comes about from the causes that meet it, and move
along with it, not from the intention of the actor.
“For
neither the burier nor the tiller intended that the gold should be found; but,
as I said, it was a coincidence, and it happened that the one dug up what the
other buried.
“We
may therefore define chance as an unexpected result from the coincidence of
certain causes in matters where there was another purpose.
“The
order of the Universe, advancing with its inevitable sequences, brings about
this coincidence of causes.
“This
order itself emanates from its source, which is Providence, and disposes all
things in their proper time and place.”
—from
Book 5, Prose 1
While I
still could, I would teach the very section of Aristotle’s Physics that Lady
Philosophy describes. I would, in fact, try to add the whole bit about the Four
Causes, but as the curriculum became narrower, as legislated by our patriotic government
or by our holy priests, I was left with very little chance to do so.
Now I
can only sneak it in, when on one else is looking.
I know
quite well that I am a dinosaur, but I do believe that a knowledge of the Four
Causes will help anyone, in all aspects of life.
Where did
it come from? We once called that the efficient cause, the source or origin of
action, either proximate or ultimate.
What was
it made out of? What were the parts? We once called that the material cause,
that out of which things came.
What was
its identity? What gave it a structure? We once called that the formal cause,
how the bits were put together.
Where
was it going? What was its end or purpose? We once called that the final cause,
the aim and intention.
Everything
in life, any aspect of life, only make sense within the context of these Four Causes,
all joined together.
As I
learned about philosophy over the years, I gained the ability to ask about each
and every cause, at each and every juncture I faced.
Good
Lord, how often I screwed up my life, and yet I somehow never screwed up my
life when I followed that pattern of asking those precise questions.
Where
did I come from? What am I made of? Who am I? Where am I going?
Answer
those four questions with any quality, any at all, and you won’t go wrong. You’ve
already won half the battle, just because you asked the questions to begin with.
Now
Aristotle did wonder if there might be a Fifth Cause, chance or luck, that works
alongside the others. He immediately rejected it.
No, not
because it is an inconvenience, but because it is unintelligible. Do I not understand
the why? That does not negate the why; it only means that I did not see where
it came from, or how it was here, or where it was meant to go.
Deal me
a hand of cards, and I might say it is all about chance. Hardly. If I knew the
stack of the deck, however shuffled it might be, there would be no chance.
Throw me
some dice on the table, and I might say it is all about chance. Hardly. If I
knew all the physical variables, the position, the force, and the resistance, I
would win every time.
“Well,
you don’t know those things, so there is chance!”
Yes, but
only in my own ignorance, not in how the cards are dealt, or how the dice will
fall.
“Idiot!
Only God could know all of that!”
Yes, exactly.
See? No
Fifth Cause.
Written in 1/2016
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