Which is the best example of a cause?
Materialcause: “that out of which a thing comes-to-be and which persists is said to be a cause, for example, the bronze is a cause of a statue, the silver is a cause of a bowl, and the genera of these [is also a cause].” Formalcause: “the form or paradigm, and this is the formula of the essence … and the parts that are in the formula.”
What did Aristotle mean by the search for causes?
From the Phaedo, for example, we learn that the so-called “inquiry into nature” consisted in a search for “the causes of each thing; why each thing comes into existence, why it goes out of existence, why it exists” (96 a 6–10). In this tradition of investigation, the search for causes was a search for answers to the question “why?”.
Why do we need to look at the causes of change?
For that we need to look at things dynamically—we need to look at causes that explain why matter has come to be formed in the way that it has. Change consists in matter taking on (or losing) form. Efficient and final causes are used to explain why change occurs. This is easiest to see in the case of an artifact, like a statue or a table.
Is the efficient cause the same as the Humean cause?
Only one of Aristotle’s causes (the “efficient” cause) sounds even remotely like a Humean cause. Humean causes are events, and so are their effects, but Aristotle doesn’t limit his causes in that way. Typically, it is substancesthat have causes.
Materialcause: “that out of which a thing comes-to-be and which persists is said to be a cause, for example, the bronze is a cause of a statue, the silver is a cause of a bowl, and the genera of these [is also a cause].” Formalcause: “the form or paradigm, and this is the formula of the essence … and the parts that are in the formula.”
From the Phaedo, for example, we learn that the so-called “inquiry into nature” consisted in a search for “the causes of each thing; why each thing comes into existence, why it goes out of existence, why it exists” (96 a 6–10). In this tradition of investigation, the search for causes was a search for answers to the question “why?”.
For that we need to look at things dynamically—we need to look at causes that explain why matter has come to be formed in the way that it has. Change consists in matter taking on (or losing) form. Efficient and final causes are used to explain why change occurs. This is easiest to see in the case of an artifact, like a statue or a table.
Only one of Aristotle’s causes (the “efficient” cause) sounds even remotely like a Humean cause. Humean causes are events, and so are their effects, but Aristotle doesn’t limit his causes in that way. Typically, it is substancesthat have causes.