ABSTRACT
A system of laws is the central notion in the modern scientist’s picture of the world. To explain an event means to show it as a special application of part of such a system. The various notions we have been discussing are all looked upon as special instances of this fundamental idea. To ask for the essence of a thing or event is to ask for the system of classification in which it falls from the point of view of a revealed interest. 1 A thing’s purpose is its place in the system of men’s aims, conduct, or welfare. Its cause is a set of prior events to which it is related in a discoverable system. As is apparent from these formulations, the critique of the notions of essence, purpose, and cause in the preceding chapters has been carried out in terms of the point of view presented in this chapter.
