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Aristotle - Aristotle's metaphysics | | Aristotle - Aristotle's metaphysics: Encyclopedia II - Aristotle - Aristotle's metaphysics | |
Aristotle - Aristotle's four causes.
Aristotle names four "causes" of things, but the word cause (Greek: αἰτἱα, aitia) is not used in the modern sense of "cause and effect", under which causes are events or states of affairs. Rather, the four causes are like different ways of explaining something:
The Material Cause (That from which it comes)
This is the material that makes up an object, for example, "the br ...
See also:Aristotle, Aristotle - Biography, Aristotle - Early life and studies at the Academy, Aristotle - Aristotle as philosopher and tutor, Aristotle - Founder and master of the Lyceum, Aristotle - Methodology, Aristotle - Aristotle's epistemology, Aristotle - Logic, Aristotle - Science, Aristotle - Aristotle's metaphysics, Aristotle - Aristotle's four causes, Aristotle - The difference between natural objects and artifacts, Aristotle - Modes of causation, Aristotle - Chance, Aristotle - The Five Elements, Aristotle - Aristotle's ethics, Aristotle - Nicomachean ethics, Aristotle - Aristotle's critics, Aristotle - The Loss of his works, Aristotle - Bibliography, Aristotle - Major works, Aristotle - Specific editions, Aristotle - Named for Aristotle | | | Aristotle, Aristotle - Aristotle as philosopher and tutor, Aristotle - Aristotle's critics, Aristotle - Aristotle's epistemology, Aristotle - Aristotle's ethics, Aristotle - Aristotle's four causes, Aristotle - Aristotle's metaphysics, Aristotle - Bibliography, Aristotle - Biography, Aristotle - Chance, Aristotle - Early life and studies at the Academy, Aristotle - Founder and master of the Lyceum, Aristotle - Logic, Aristotle - Major works, Aristotle - Methodology, Aristotle - Modes of causation, Aristotle - Named for Aristotle, Aristotle - Nicomachean ethics, Aristotle - Science, Aristotle - Specific editions, Aristotle - The Five Elements, Aristotle - The Loss of his works, Aristotle - The difference between natural objects and artifacts, Aristotelian view of God, Aristotelian theory of gravity, Philosophy, Plato, Logic, Aristotle's theory of potentialiy and actuality | | |
| | | Aristotle: Encyclopedia II - Aristotle - Aristotle's metaphysics
Aristotle - Aristotle's metaphysics
Aristotle - Aristotle's four causes
Aristotle names four "causes" of things, but the word cause (Greek: αἰτἱα, aitia) is not used in the modern sense of "cause and effect", under which causes are events or states of affairs. Rather, the four causes are like different ways of explaining something:
The Material Cause (That from which it comes)
This is the material that makes up an object, for example, "the bronze and silver ... are causes of the statue and the bowl."
The Formal Cause (That which it is)
This is the blueprint or the idea commonly held of what an object should be. Aristotle says, "The form is the account (and the genera of the account) of the essence (for instance, the cause of an octave is the ratio two to one, and in general number), and the parts that are in the account."
The Efficient Cause (That which moves it)
This is the person who makes an object, or "unmoved movers" (gods) who move nature. For example, "a father is a cause of his child; and in general the producer is a cause of the product and the initiator of the change is a cause." This is closest to the modern definition of "cause".
The Final Cause (That of which its purpose is)
The final cause or telos is the purpose or end that something is supposed to serve. This includes "all the intermediate steps that are for the end ... for example, slimming, purging, drugs, or instruments are for health; all of these are for the end, though they differ in that some are activities while others are instruments."
An example of an artifact that has all four causes would be a table, which has material causes (wood and nails), a formal cause (the blueprint, or a generally agreed idea of what tables are), an efficient cause (the carpenter), and a final cause (using it to dine on).
Aristotle argues that natural objects such as an "individual man" have all four causes. The material cause of an individual man would be the flesh and bone that make up an individual man. The formal cause would be the blueprint of man, that which is used as a guide to create an individual man and to keep him in a certain state called man. The efficient cause of an individual man would be the father of that man, or in the case of all men an "unmoved mover" who breathed (anima: breath) into the soul (anima: soul) of man. The final cause of man would be as Aristotle stated, "Now we take the human's function to be a certain kind of life, and take this life to be the soul's activity and actions that express reason. Hence the excellent man's function is to do this finely and well. Each function is completed well when its completion expresses the proper virtue. Therefore the human good turns out to be the souls' activity that expresses virtue."
Aristotle - The difference between natural objects and artifacts
The difference between natural objects and an artifact is that natural objects have self movement. Aristotle defined the difference between a natural object and an artifact when he stated, "In contrast to these, a bed, a cloak, or any other artifact-insofar as it is described as such i.e., as a bed, a cloak, or whatever, and to the extent that it is a product of a craft-has no innate impulse to change; but insofar as it is coincidentally made of stone or earth or a mixture of these, it has an innate impulse to change and just to that extent. This is because a nature is a type of principle and cause of motion and stability within those things to which it primarily belongs in their own right and not coincidentally." The natural objects are changed to artifacts through crafts but they have an innate impulse of self movement to convert through time to their natural state, and they will all turn into that state when all animals with reason are extinct from the earth.
Aristotle - Modes of causation
Aristotle states two modes of causation:
- Proper Causation: Things take place for the sake of something, and the result is that which is intended.
- Accidental Causation: Things that take place not out of necessity. E.g. things that take place by chance/coincidence. This cause is indeterminable.
Aristotle - Chance
Chance lies in the realm of accidental causes. It is "from what is spontaneous" (but note that what is spontaneous does not come from chance). For a better understanding of Aristotle's conception of "chance" it might be better to think of "coincidence": Something takes place by chance if a person sets out with the intent of having one thing take place, but with the result of another thing (not intended) taking place. For example: A person seeks donations. That person may find another person willing to donate a substantial sum. However, if the person seeking the donations met the person donating, not for the purpose of collecting donations, but for some other purpose, Aristotle would call the collecting of the donation by that particular donator a result of chance. It must be unusual that something happens by chance. In other words, if something happens all or most of the time, we cannot say that it is by chance.
However, chance can only apply to human beings. According to Aristotle, chance must involve choice (and thus deliberation), and only humans are capable of deliberation and choice. "What is not capable of action cannot do anything by chance" (Physics, 2.6).
Aristotle - The Five Elements
- Fire which is hot and dry.
- Earth which is cold and dry.
- Air which is hot and wet.
- Water which is cold and wet.
- Aether which is the divine substance that makes up the heavens
These four elements interchange (i.e. Fire ↔ Air ↔ Water ↔ Earth etc.), while aether is on its own. The Sun keeps this cycle going. God keeps the Sun going (and thus the Sun is eternal).
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 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Aristotle's metaphysics", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
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