ABSTRACT
Two main traditions can be distinguished in the history of ideas, differing as to the conditions an explanation has to satisfy in order to be scientifically respectable. The one tradition is sometimes called Aristotelian, the other Galilean. The names suggest that the first has very ancient roots in the intellectual history of man, while the second is of relatively recent origin. There is some truth in this, but it should be taken with a grain of salt. The contrast between the two traditions is usually characterized as causal versus teleological explanation. The first type of explanation is also called mechanistic, the second finalistic. The name was coined by Comte, but used with due caution it is also appropriate for the position of C. Wright Mills and for an entire intellectual tradition extending from Comte and Mill not only down to the present day but also upward in the stream of time to Hume and the philosophy of the Enlightenment.
