Discussion: Aristotle’s Four Causes

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Table of Contents

Summary
Matter
Agent/Efficient Cause
Form
End/Final Cause
Two Objects
References

Summary

Four causes are Aristotle’s answers to four questions that need to be asked about changes that people are familiar with through common experience. Knowing these reasons in relation to something, people can be sure they have learned it. In this case, it becomes evident that to know a specific thing, it is critical to comprehend what this thing consists of, how and for what reason this thing arose or appeared, as well as what exactly it is, what its essence is, and why this thing exists.

Matter

A material cause answers the question: “What does a thing consist of?” It is why a material will determine the properties of a thing and the ways of its application. For illustration, for a table, the material reason will be a tree, so one can already investigate the cause for this wood. Thus, if one asks a shoemaker, he will answer “leather”; if one asks a jeweler, he will say “gold” or “silver,” and a gunsmith who makes a gun, in turn, will answer “wood and steel.” In each case, the type of material with which a master works, producing a specific product, is the material reason for production. This is one of the four necessary factors without which production is impossible.

Agent/Efficient Cause

Further reflection shows that the material cause needs to be revised to fully understand the process of the emergence of various causes. Accordingly, this reason is the answer to the question: “What or who changed matter?” Perhaps this is precisely what is called an agent/efficient cause in the modern world. It would seem that this is the most straightforward question of all, at least when someone is dealing with the products of human labor. Nonetheless, it is not so unambiguous when it comes to natural changes. As practice shows, a creator is an active cause of production.

Form

Therefore, a formal cause answers the question, “what is what is done?”. In general, the essence of a thing is those properties, without each of which an item will cease to be itself; it is a set of necessary properties. The entity is attributed to the reasons because usually, a master creates something not arbitrarily but according to some project. It may seem obvious that products made by a shoemaker are shoes, by a jeweler – rings. However, most likely, an individual may be puzzled by the fact that Aristotle called the third answer the formal reason for the change or production. Although, indeed, “formal” is the most suitable “pair” to “material.” For example, glass can be used as a decoration on a chandelier, wood – on a wooden bed, and iron – as a cannonball, and these possibilities will determine the choice of a master and final results.

End/Final Cause

Appropriately, the end/final cause answers the question, “why was this done?” When a person needs something (for example, a table), then depending on the purpose (to eat at this table or work at it), they create it in one way or another. This fourth factor in human production is the ultimate cause because it is the goal. When an individual does something, the goal is achieved last. It is necessary to complete the work before using the result for the intended purpose.

Two Objects

A tennis ball driven by a racket moves across the court to an opponent’s field, and the one who threw this ball is an active cause of this movement. A ball is a material cause — the object over which an action is carried out. If this opponent could not hit back, a ball fell from the other side of the net and remained there. This place is the formal reason for a particular movement. In the second case, a green chair, which a person paints red, similarly transforms into red color. Redness is the formal reason for the change introduced by painting a chair, and staying there is the formal reason for the change that followed after hitting a tennis ball. In each case, a person is an active cause. The material explanation for this is a green chair, over which an action was performed by painting it red.

References

Aquinas. (n.d). Summa theologiae first part: sacred doctrine. Aquinas: ST.I. Web.

Shirwood, W. (1975). William of Sherwood’s introduction to logic. Greenwood Press.

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