Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“If the principle of final causes were a first principle, and a priori, like the principle of causality, we would apply it everywhere and in all circumstances; but it is not so.”
- Source
- Final Causes
- Date
- 1878
- English wording
- William Affleck — Translator · from French
Meaning of “If the principle of final causes were a…”
Janet begins by denying that teleological explanation functions as an automatic first principle, making its use something that must itself be examined and justified.
Where does it come from?
Final Causes, Book I, Chapter I, “The Principle,” opening sentence, William Affleck translation (1878). The represented public-domain scan prints the sentence on p. 17 after Robert Flint’s prefatory matter. Janet begins by denying that finality functions as an automatic a priori principle like causality; this remains nineteenth-century philosophical teleology rather than current scientific consensus.