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The Aristotles teleology and the principle of least action

George Mpantes mathematics teacher

From my book : Selected stories in mathematics and
physics, Lambert Academic Publishing. www.mpantes. gr .

Key words: Aristotelian teleology, least action, Maupertius, Hamilton, many stories,
Feynman, Spinoza, final causes,

Abstract
Final causes,
the principle of least action
Hamilton principle
The PLA in physics
The teleological version of Feynman

Final causes

Aristotle is commonly considered the inventor of teleology, although the precise

term originated in the eighteenth century. But if teleology means the use of ends or goals in
natural science, then Aristotle was rather a critical innovator of
teleological explanation. Aristotles teleological explanation,

does not crucially depend upon the application of

psychological concepts such as desires, beliefs and intentions.
This brings the discussion back to the very puzzling chapter 9
of Physics II, and thence to a consideration of the idea that
absolutely everything in nature is for some purpose.

"A difficulty presents itself: why should not nature work, not for the sake of something, nor because it
is better so, but just as the sky rains, not in order to make the corn grow, but of necessity? If a man's
crop is spoiled on the threshing-floor, the rain did not fall for the sake of this-in order that the crop
might be spoiled-but that result just followed. Why then should it not be the same with the parts in
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nature?...Wherever then all the parts came about just what they would have been if they had come be
for an end, such things survived, being organized spontaneously in a fitting way; whereas those which
grew otherwise perished and continue to perish?... Yet it is impossible that this should be the true
view. For teeth and all other natural things either invariably or normally come about in a given way;
but of not one of the results of chance or spontaneity is this true. It follows that they must be for an
end; and that such things are all due to nature even the champions of the theory which is before us
would agree." From Aristotle's Physics, Book II

But if somebody does not comprehend Aristotles ontology cannot conceive his teleology.
The four causes of Aristotle are allocated: in matter is the necessity, but in form is the final cause(
goal). But the most important aspect of nature is the form, so physicist should study both kinds of
causes, but particularly the final cause. Since the goal is the cause of the matter and not the matter
the cause of goal... Physics B9

The main controversy of the new epoch of mechanics as it is clearly shown

in the contents of its ideas, is directed against the ' scientific ' aspects of theology,
mainly against the concept of final causes, which acted as the "scientific " axioms
of theology and the reaction for the emerging science. So the debate is about
Aristotelianism, but actually the target is theology.
Man, says Spinoza, believes that everything (God, nature, himself) functions
through final causes (purposes ) because he does not know the true causes, so he
connects all physical phenomena with himself, that is, as nature guided from God
for the benefit of humans ( anthropocentrism ), who (God) looks like a Superman (
anthropomorphism). But in nature everything happens according to the material
constraint and not freely. Moreover, Spinoza expressly denies that nature is a teleological
system, and claims that final causal/teleological explanations turns nature completely
upside down. For what is really a cause it considers as an effect, and conversely, what is an
effect it considers as a cause (Appendix, I). Now all the prejudices which I intend to mention
here turn on this one point, the widespread belief among men that all things in Nature are
like themselves in acting with an end in view.
"The final causes do not help science and knowledge in general , because they encourage
man to attribute any event in the inscrutable will of GodSpinoza.

Spinoza through his critique of the final causes challenges the belief in
divine providence and miracles, claiming that God never acts against the laws of
nature which He endorsed.
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So the final causes were excluded from God, from nature, and theology ,
which had no cognitive value for Spinoza . The teleological delusion is inherent in
human nature and justified only by the ignorance of the chain of efficient causes
that must produce the human understanding.
In this article I will show that physics that rejected the theological
interpretation of final causes, will resets them back in their genuine Aristotelian
form.

The principle of least action .

..The variation principles proposed in physics, are surrounded by a philosophical mysticism that
has delayed an evaluation of their value.. J.W.Leech

The teleology in physics comes back through the principle of least action, a
variation principle with a long history, with mathematical foundations and
continuous verification from experimental physics. It is the principle which denies
the omnipotence of deterministic mechanism.
The idea that the laws of nature must satisfy a purpose, a principle of
simplicity, starts from Aristotle to On Sky " which argues that the movement of the
stars should be circular, because" the line enclosing the circle is the line the smallest
length, and the faster movement t is that in the shortest length. Here's an example
of Aristotelian teleology . The stars move as they move, because achieve the shortest
path . Heron of Alexandria has shown perhaps the first scientific principle for the
minimum, indicating that the path of the reflected light beam is shorter if the angles
of incidence and reflection are equal.
Fermat, between 1601-1605, studying the refraction of light, showed that
the light reaches its destination by following the fastest path (principle of the least
time). The principle of Fermat is a teleological principle, so it met the opposition of
the mechanistic scholarship. Fermat repelled criticism with a response that restates
later from the school of Copenhagen in the field of quantum mechanics : " Forget the
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deep interpretations. The principle i have expressed agrees with experiment up to seven decimal
places. Newton's laws were introduced because they interpreted what had found Kepler . "Fermat

But the mathematical reasoning, that according to Galileo can not be

separated from things, will show another way.
Fifty years after Newton, it was formulated the principle of least action
( PLA), in first form of the French Maupertius and final of the Irishman William
Hamilton. The first was incomplete and descriptive, the second is based on the
mathematical theory of variations.
Maupertius round in 1744 formulated the principle in its first form, with the
( Aristotelian ) intuition that the perfection of the universe requires an economy in
variations and a contrast of nature itself to unnecessary energy expenditure. Nature
does nothing in vain said Aristotle. The natural movements must be such as to
render some quantity of minimum. This principle has produced by the laws of
Newton. According to this principle, there is a different way of interpreting the
motion of planets which gives exactly the same results as Newtonian 'Principle of
acceleration forces, as we call it . It is the "principle of least action, PLA" that the
general idea is that: planets or bodies which move in space, follow that trajectory
which minimizes something called action between the initial and final point. Action
is something that can be measured for each moving object along a track. Its
dimensions are of energy multiplied by time . The details are not necessary since
we will not do calculations.1
.. Having found that laws of motion extracted ( from the principle of least action ) is exactly
what we observe in nature, we can admire its application to all phenomena, in movement of animals,
in plant growth, in the rotation of the celestial bodies : the impressive spectacle of the universe
becomes larger, so beautiful the more worthy of his Creator ... these laws, so beautiful and so simple
are probably the only that the Creator and Organizer of things has installed in matter , in order to act
in all the phenomena of the visible world .... Maupertius

This alternative way of describing the world by Moreau de Maupertius met

reactions, since claimed that it is a rather moral principle, in which God saves energy
in the entire universe, for a better world. It is a divine design so it is about for a

1
The action has dimensions of energy over time and as a term is a relic of the 17th
century when they had not clarified the concepts of energy and momentum.
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theological teleology in physics. Moreover, the action, which considered the

Maupertius was not correct and the evidence lacked clarity and precision2.
Almost simultaneously, Euler in his book in 1744 (a method for finding curved lines
enjoying properties of maximum and minimum. Or solution of isoperimetric problems), he lays the
foundations of a calculus of variations a method applicable to all the problems of
extremities. This book is one of the first to present and discuss the physical principle
of least action, indicating a deep connection between the calculus of variations and
physics. He demonstrated that the curve will follow a body during free movement
between two points is the one that will minimize the momentum along the orbit, i.e.
its action. He speaks also of a divine plan3. Sarcasm anyway abated, because it is not
easy to gibe mathematical results .

Hamiltons principle .

But the idea that linked the new principle with the mechanics of Newton, is
the new form given to it (mechanics ) by Lagrange, the greatest scientist of Europe
of his time." The alternative form of the Newtonian theory which had proposed
Lagrange, and Euler's theorems of calculus of variations, supported the Hamiltons
principle, the principle of least action. Now this principle (PLA) will emerge as an
application of Euler's important theorem of the theory of variations in the motion of
bodies. The math do not exist to save the phenomena ! Assuming the Lagrangian of
the system as a function of Euler 's theorem, the mathematical result of the theorem
gives us the equations of motion of Lagrange i.e. Newtonian mechanics , through the
minimization of the action! This is the principle of Hamilton!

2
The biggest enemy was Voltaire whose texts against Maupertius are amonument
of sarcasm. For months the high society laughed with Maupertius who eventually became the
laughing stock of Europe, finding refuge in Switzerland. It is said that Voltaire and Maupertius
had a relationship with the same woman.
3
"Since the divine plan is the most perfect in the world, there can be no doubt that all
actions in the universe can be determined by the respective causes through the calculus of
maxima and minima. Leonard Euler 1707-1783
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When a dynamic system moves from a position 1 to a new position 2,

within a specified time t2-t1, the path followed is the one that makes the action of
the system minimum 4.
But the motion that minimizes the action is the motion satisfying the
Newtonian equation F = mdu/dt. So the two principles seem equivalent. In my
University teacher Hatzidimitriou we read
It is possible to build the edifice of theoretical mechanics on a new principle, the principle of
Hamilton, instead of Newton's laws . That is because Newton's laws are resulting from this principle ,
but conversely , the principle of Hamilton may arise by applying Newton's laws . Principle therefore
does not constitute a new theory of mechanics , but is more elegant than Newton's laws and may also
be applied to other areas outside of theoretical mechanics and mostly in the regions of fields, where
Newton's laws do not have a direct applicability.

Well the principle of Hamilton cannot be described as a fundamental, since

the description is equivalent to the classical description, the Hamilton's principle is
equivalent to the principles of Newton. We have just two answers to describe
situations in classical mechanics.
1. the bodies motion are deterministically described from the initial
conditions, each moment produces the next moment, and the trajectories produced,
satisfy the principle of least action, or
2.motions have holistic existence, the orbits are determined to satisfy the
PLA and happens to be those that yield the system of Newtons forces and
accelerations.
While for Spinoza, the final causes were the anthropomorphic causes, it now
appears inversely that the forces, the gravity or inertia, express the
anthropomorphism .

4
The action of the system during its motion is represented by the integral
t2
I Ldt with L=T-V.
t1

Strictly expressed the principle Hamilton talks about stationary and not for least action, we will
consider the two terms synonymously. Generally for the minimization of action, Karatheodoris
has shown that action becomes minimum for natural movements whose distance is "small."
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But the principle of Hamilton has something incomprehensible in its

interpretation : It seems to imply that the body n e e d s t o k n o w t h e p a t h
t o f o l l o w and carry out the plan of how to go there, protecting the available
energy (equations of motion). And the question that remains is how bodies manage
to know what is the path which makes the action less than another, so choose only
that, the analogous question that we saw in differential motion of Newton, (how
bodies are held in orbit and at all times they know how to move next). This will be
known from the model of "many stories" of Feynman (below) and will be understood
through the Aristotelian ontology .
Hamilton's principle is a teleological principle5. Let's deepen its meaning: A
projectile is thrown into the air performing a parabolic trajectory until it stops on the
ground. Why its orbit is parabolic ? this parabola is the cause or the result of motion?

Is the result, says the Newtonian approach .The result of the action of two
forces, the inertial and gravitational which pushes the projectile in a parabolic
trajectory from moment to moment. (deterministic interpretation).
Determinism often is taken to mean causal determinism, which in physics is known
as cause-and-effect. It is the concept that events within a given paradigm are bound
by causality in such a way that any state (of an object or event) is completely determined by
prior states. Causality (also referred to as causation, or cause and effect) is the natural or
worldly agency or efficacy that connects one process (the cause) with another process or

5
The science historian J. Gleick (1993) writes: 'it is impossible for a physicist to talk
about the principle of least action without unconsciously give some kind of willpower in the
moving body. The body seems to choose the route. It seems to know all the chances that are
presented. "
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state (the effect), where the first is partly responsible for the second, and the second is partly
dependent on the first. (Wikipedia)
Is the cause (goal), says the principle of Hamilton, because with the
parabolic trajectory comes true the PLA. (holistic interpretation, where systems are
approached as coherent wholes whose component parts are best understood in
context and in relation to one another and to the whole). The trajectory is inscribed
in motion from the beginning. Hamiltons motion minimizes the integral for the
action, namely the action in whole trip, the entire route is involved in interpretation,
is a holistic law. The holistic interpretation is easy to describe but difficult to
understand, deterministic versa.
This practice is in contrast to a purely analytic tradition (sometimes
called reductionism) which aims to gain understanding of systems by dividing them
into smaller composing elements and gaining understanding of the system through
understanding their elemental properties. The holism-reductionism dichotomy is
often evident in conflicting interpretations of experimental findings and in setting
priorities for future research. In the holistic approach of David Bohm, objects
constitutes an indivisible whole and there is no scientific evidence to support the
dominant view that the universe consists of a huge, finite number of minute particles,
and offered in its stead a view of undivided wholeness: "ultimately, the entire
universe (with all its 'particles', including those constituting human beings, their
laboratories, observing instruments, etc.) has to be understood as a single undivided
whole, in which analysis into separately and independently existent parts has no
fundamental status
How can we capture this exactly Aristotelian teleology, that brings the
principle of Hamilton, as interpretation of motion ?
This will be possible only by redefining the phenomenon of motion. In
Hamiltons principle we must conceive that motion is not the phenomenon of
change of bodys position, but something deeper. Movement is the phenomenon of
minimizing the action in a change of position. This is associated with the mobiles
Aristotelian entelechy, the being completely of the moving body, its tendency
to "consume the minimum energy" in its motions, as was its tendency described
from the law of inertia in Newtons model. But how should we understand the
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phenomenon? It depends on which principle is fundamental in physics, deterministic

or holistic, and within the framework of classical mechanics we saw that they are
equivalent.

The PLA in physics

But it seems that nature prefers the version of the action. The PLA has invaded in
physics, so that all the physics can be rewritten in terms of easier or minimum. Light
finds the shortest path in an optical system, the trajectory of a body in the
gravitational field is a geodesic, i.e. a route with the smallest " space-time " length .
Thomson 's theorem states that electrically charged particles move between them as
if they had the least energy, yet, we can use the PLA in relativity if we find the right
form for the action, such an easy and successful variation principle has been applied
to general relativity by Taylor and Wheeler for the exploration of black holes .... (
M.Hancova ). Larmor applied the calculus of variations in electromagnetic
phenomena and showed that Maxwell's laws can be derived from a suitable
mathematical expression L of electromagnetic function of action, by PLA .
So what happens? Which principle is fundamental in physics? What is the
phenomenon of motion?

The teleological version of Feynman

While a clear answer to these questions does not exist in the

context of classical physics, this will only be given by quantum physics,
and even from the version developed by Feynman, who brings
Aristotle in modern physics.
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What changed in the Feynman interpretation of quantum mechanics?

He gives an interpretation of the formation of the wave function which describes the
activity of a particle.
He introduces the well-known principle of quantum electrodynamics, that of
many stories in motion.6
But how to determine the probability of a path before this motion? He
accepts all equally possible events as
potential Aristotelian realities
from which the entelechy will
push ' in actuality those that will
be compatible with the final cause,
which is the PLA. Right here he shows a similar process! The "many stories" of
Feynman are understood by the "potential" Aristotelian reality of matter. He gives
an example of the known reflection phenomenon of light, illustrated in the figure .
The equality of the angles of incidence and reflection is a minor in his interpretation.
Feynman says that the reflectance of the photon from the S to P through horizontal
mirror, is likely to be at the point M, where the angles of incidence and reflection are
equal,7 because it dictates the PLA. The photon has initially infinite possibilities of
route ( the many stories ) . Could be reflected in A , B, C , etc. But this is improbable
to happen. The possibilities of these paths are reduced with a mathematical
process, but we cannot give it a real meaning within the world of empirical reality
without the Aristotelian ontology.

6
we will not make any arbitrary rule. The only correct rule-what really happens-it's
much simpler : each photon reaches the detector has the same chance to move (it could
move) in any wayFeynman
7
The view of classical physics
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This process is: we add the arrows of the waves of probability, whose
directions round the path of PLA -that is the path of least time SMP or minimum
action-, differ slightly, resulting added enhancers and impose their directions, the

phase in the final stage, the final sum - arrow .. Therefore the orbit SMP is most
probable and this seems to take place . This is a natural and automatic process.
Phases in places like K or B cancel each other with a mathematical process and do
not add anything to the final width8. The random motions of potential reality,
primer these of PLA, in the microcosm. So if the PLA considered as purpose, this
purpose is raised by the nature itself9. Aristotle would say that these many stories
are potential orbits, orbits in potentiality, are the infinite possibilities of
transformation of matter to form and their sorting is interpreted as entelechy of the
photon. So ... the light does not actually move in a straight line. You could say that " smells
" the neighboring paths and uses a ' core area ' round from the straight path .... Feynman
Now we got the roots of the phenomenon of motion for the entire physics.
Because in the classical limit the quantum effect of PLA , is reduced to PLA of
Hamilton, even in forces of Newton, as shown by the Feynman, through the
formalism of ' many histories '. Classical physics is an application of quantum
mechanics , and not vice versa.

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In a "good" function, round the minimum there is always possibility of less
dispersion of values. This specifies the path of least action as the most possible motion! In
this way the physicist Feynman expresses the entelechy of the mobile. This is the universe
of thought that Jeans says.
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The purpose in nature resulting from the very nature, not something outside of it, the
bodies have the purpose within them .. Aristotle.
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Until some size in world observations, the stories of Hamilton and Newton
seem equivalent descriptions. But in the field of quantum physics, the fundamental
of nature is found in PLA as most probable evolution. Feynman applies PLA in an
infinitesimal part of a path, thus the search of extremity of action in this case is
directly related to the derivative of the potential, viz the force that dictates the
particle how to move. So the PLA produces the concept of conservative forces! The
conservative force e.g gravity serves anthropocentrism, despite what believed
classical physics and Spinoza. Everything is PLA.

.The Newton's laws can not be applied to things that are too small , too fast or too large .
In fact is clear that the fundamental laws can be written in the form of a principle of least
action .... Feynman
" Because the purpose is the cause of matter and not matter the cause of purpose,
Aristotle .

George Mpantes mathematician

Serres Greece