Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Formal Causation

Ludger Jansen teaches philosophy at the Centre for Philosophy of Science at the University of Münster and at the University of Rostock, where he was head of the project “Formal Causation in Aristotle and Analytic Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science” funded by the German Research Foundation. He is the author of Gruppen und Institutionen (2017) and Tun und Können (2015); and co-editor with Barry Smith of Biomedizinische Ontologie (2008) and with Christoph Jedan of Philosophische Anthropologie in der Antike (2010).Petter Sandstad is a doctoral student at the University of Rostock working on Aristotelian formal causation, and was a researcher on the project “Formal Causation in Aristotle and Analytic Metaphysics and Philosophy of Science” funded by the German Research Foundation. He has published papers on Socrates and Aristotle, as well as on contemporary metaphysics.

• Introducing Formal CausationLudger Jansen and Petter SandstadPart I: Scholastic Approaches to Formal Causation Form, Intention, Information: From Scholastic Logic to Artificial IntelligenceGyula Klima Formal Causation: Accidental and SubstantialDavid S. OderbergPart II: Contemporary Approaches to Formal Causation A Non-hylomorphic Account of Formal CausationPetter Sandstad and Ludger Jansen Formal Causes for Powers TheoristsGiacomo Giannini and Stephen Mumford Away with Dispositional Essences in Trope TheoryJani Hakkarainen and Markku Keinänen Functional PowersMichele Paolini PaolettiPart III: Formal Causation and Dependence An Aristotelian Approach to Existential DependenceBenjamin Schnieder and Jonas Werner Finean Feature Dependence and the Aristotelian AlternativeWolfgang Sattler A Problem for Natural-Kind Essentialism and Formal CausesJosé Tomás Alvarado and Matthew TugbyPart IV: Formal Causation in Biology and Cognitive Sciences Form as Cause and the Formal Cause: Aristotle’s AnswerJames G. Lennox Form, Cause, and Explanation in Biology: A Neo-Aristotelian PerspectiveChristopher J. Austin Formal Explanation and Mechanisms of Conceptual RepresentationSandeep Prasada

'This volume collects cutting-edge work on topics of robust current interest in metaphysics, such as essentialism and hylomorphism, under the thematic heading of formal causation. Does formal causation belong in the toolbox of contemporary metaphysics? The volume might well be seen in the years to come as bringing the topic of formal causation to the forefront of discussions of kinds, essences, and hylomorphism.' – Phil Corkum, University of Alberta, Canada