The explanatory weakness of atomistic determinism is probably what lead Aristotle to reject atomism despite the fact that he preferred this view to all other Presocratic theories (and even to Plato's theories in some instances). Aristotle recognized the fact that the atomists had actually removed too much anthropomorphism and that the explanatory power of their theory was thus enfeebled. They took the extra controlling force out of nature, without any real alternative to put in its stead. Aristotle put this controlling force back into the philosophical picture with his notion of final cause, or teleology.

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