One of our greatest western philosophers of all time was a man known as Aristotle. Excelling in many fields, Aristotle has philosophical views that have been followed for hundreds of years. For eighteen years Aristotle was a student in Plato's academy, where he learned but parted with Plato's views. Unfaithful to Plato and his philosophical views, Aristotle felt that common sense was a better approach to resolve problems than to reason them. Instead of asking how something came about (which is more preferable in modern science today), he was more intrigued in why it came about. This form of thinking is known as teleology. Teleology explains something by looking for a purpose, goal or an end to it. For example, Aristotle strongly felt the universe as a whole, and all things in it, have a purpose or a goal. In other words, every substance has its nature. He also claims the ultimate things of reality are individual things.
             Teleology has to lead him to believe in certain views of metaphysics. He felt that metaphysics was the study of nature and most importantly, the study of ourselves. That leads to say; one does not have an explanation at all unless one knows what purpose a thing or an event serves. This may be so, but modern science views the universe today through causal explanations and not by teleological views. Unless there is no causal answer, the scientist then considers a teleological view. To go in depth, when Aristotle explained why a thing is as it is at any given time, also known as the four causes, his explanations are better suited for activities occurring, more than giving what we would call scientific explanations about things that happen in nature. To present Aristotle is somewhat wrong about some of his views is the example of his famous theory of falling objects. Aristotle thought the cause of an object falling had to be in the object and not in the earth. He claimed larger objects fell faster than smaller ones. Bu...