In my previous essay, I argued for simple models. But simple does not mean easy and cheap. There is a minimum viability to what passes as a useful model.
Aristotle taught something that can sound like a burden. If you wanted to explain a thing fully, you had to explain it in 4 distinct ways. Not one. Four. It reads like a checklist, and checklists sometimes feel like punishment.
The material cause. What it is made of?
The formal cause. What pattern makes it what it is? How it is structured.
Efficient cause. What makes it happen?
Final cause. What it is for?
But he was not being complicated. He was forcing intellectual rigor. He was trying to prevent a common human error. Mistaking a fragment for the whole. Seeing one slice of truth and acting as if the slice is the whole object.
And when you extend his 4 causes, you could have a universal model for explaining almost anything. And for understanding any system.
I. Ontology, what is it?
Ontology is identity, not just naming. Ontology answers two Aristotelian questions: what it is made of, and what form makes it what it is.
It is the Ship of Theseus question applied to real systems: when parts change, what still makes it the same thing.
In practice, ontology includes three elements.
Material, the raw stuff of it. What is it made of?
Form, the organizing pattern that makes the substance into a coherent thing.
Boundary, the edge that separates this from that. What counts as inside, what counts as outside.
II. Dynamics, how does it work?
This is Aristotle’s efficient cause, the source of motion, what initiates change.
Dynamics is the physics of change. It is not only how things move forward. It is how they keep their shape against decay.
Dynamics includes three elements.
Drivers, the engine, the catalyst, the trigger.
Constraints, the limits that bound capacity.
Maintenance and replenishment. What must be continuously supplied to keep the system from degrading?
III. Ecology, How is it shaped by its environment?
Ecology is the surrounding field of causes that shapes a system from outside. The actors and forces that load, control, feed and push back on it.
In practice, ecology reduces to four checks.
Agents, what the system is coupled to, the other bodies or forces it interacts with.
Dependencies, what it relies on from its surroundings but does not fully control.
Flows, what crosses the boundary.
Feedback loops, what amplifies or dampens behaviour over time.
IV. Teleology, What is it’s purpose?
Teleology is the logic of direction and significance. Aristotle’s final cause.
Teleology has two regimes.
Regime A, natural systems, direction without intention. Here, teleology is not moral purpose. It is convergence. Systems move toward attractors and drift towards stable states. The system does not want anything.
Regime B, purposive systems, direction with intention. Here, teleology is purpose. The system is for something. It can succeed or fail relative to that end.
In this regime, teleology has an internal structure.
Telos, the why.
Goals, the what we are aiming for.
Evaluation, the judgment loop that detects drift and corrects courses.
So people end up with an original sin. Reductionism. Treating purposive systems as purely mechanical, ignoring self-interest, status, fear, and ambition.
Let’s get practical.
In order to fully explain the circulatory system in biology, we would need to understand all four. And it takes years of med school.
Ontology (anatomy, what it is). Heart, arteries, veins, capillaries, blood, valves, chambers, vessel walls, and blood composition.
Dynamics (physiology, how it works). Pressure gradients, heart contraction cycle, flow rates, resistance, oxygen exchange at capillaries, regulation, adaptation under stress, failure modes (shock, clotting, arrhythmia).
Ecology (the external causal field). The surrounding systems and conditions that load, constrain, and regulate circulation. Lungs (oxygenation), kidneys (fluid and electrolytes), nervous and endocrine control (signals and hormones), temperature, hydration, altitude, and activity level, etc
Teleology (purpose/function, what it is for). Deliver oxygen and nutrients, remove carbon dioxide and waste, distribute hormones, regulate temperature and pH, and maintain internal stability so the body can function.
When a doctor says a heart is failing. What does he mean?
So, when a leader tells me “our systems are failing”.
I ask “What do you mean?”.
And now I wait until they and the team can answer it in four ways. Because if you cannot articulate the system or its issues in depth. You do not understand it. And you are not ready; you have no business improving what you do not understand.
Welcome to systems thinking.