Ockhamowa krytyka teleologii a narodziny nowożytnego rozumienia celowości świata natury
Ockham’s critique of teleology and the birth of the modern understanding of the finality of nature

Summary/Abstract: This article attempts to analyse the influence of William of Ockham’s views upon the transition from the medieval to the modern understanding of the final directedness of nature (i.e. the non-rational entities). To begin, the views of a number of modern authors on the idea of natural final causality are analysed. A “traditional” interpretation according to which the transition from the medieval period to modern times involved giving up the notion of a final causality in the natural sciences, and replacing it with efficient causality is criticised. The author favours instead a recent and more subtle interpretation, pointing out that modern philosophy does not reject final causality; rather, it offers a reinterpretation of this notion. Accordingly, the author proposes to distinguish between two different strands within modern philosophy. The next part of the article is an analysis of Ockham’s views , focusing in particular on the themes that – it is claimed here – could have influenced the birth of the modern understanding of natural final causality. The author characterises and discusses four such themes, and tries to associate them with the aforementioned two strands in the modern approach to the teleology of nature.

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