@kennethamy,
kennethamy wrote:
What other functions has a watch except to tell time? We can, as I pointed out, use it in other capacities, but that is what it was manufactured to do, and what people want it to do. Watches have no "final purpose" whatever that may be. If you think they do, state it.
You can use a watch to measure a person's heart rate. They can also be decorative.
Why does the second hand move around in a circle? This question has two meanings. I could be asking
what causes the movement? then the answer can be understood from examining the mechanism.
If I meant
for what purpose? then the answer is in how this accomplishes the purpose of the watch. This is the final cause.
An event has a cause. I don't think an object can have one.
kennethamy wrote:
We commend a good watch for having the characteristics that make a watch commendable, chief among which is keeping accurate time. But we know that because the chief function of a watch is to keep accurate time. Now there are generally agreed on characteristics of people that we think make them commendable. We divide these into virtues and talents. A virtue would be honesty. A talent would be intelligence. We think that virtues are somehow up to the individual himself, who develop them; talents are something the individual is born with. Together, they make the individual a good individual, or commendable or, praiseworthy. But why these particular virtues are those that make a person commendable or praiseworthy is a different issue.
Right. At this point we're talking about a generic person. A real person is partly generic and partly unique. The unique part can't be measured against any standard for functionality. So when I judge someone, I'm only focusing on the generic aspect.
So when I judge Stalin, I'm using standards that apply to all humans. At this point if all humans were robots, it wouldn't make much difference in my judging process. But if all humans were robots, none of them could be held responsible for their actions.
So what is it that we're really judging?
