A note on final causes and their role in contextualism

According to the contextualist world view, it is not possible to specify before-hand the formal characteristics of the outcomes of development. Some authors have claimed that this constitutes a rejection of final causes. This note distinguishes between the two kinds of final cause, “end stages” and “functions,” both of which can be found in the literature and traced back to Aristotle. It is argued that only one kind of final cause (end stages) is rejected in contextualism and that the other kind (functions) may even be useful to contextualism.