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Aristotle's Four Main Causes

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To some the causes and effects of things are mutually exclusive, and coexistence with one another. When observing specific equipment or even life, the question stands that there must be an account that took place before such items ceased to exist. Particularly, Aristotle argues that each thing, whatever it may be, will have causes, or types of explanatory factors by which that thing can be explained. The significant knowledge of causes allows for specific accounts to be known. It’s like questioning what occurred first the chicken or the egg. Anything in life offers a question of cause; something must have been in order to bring about the nature of today. These causes are apparent in answering everyday questions, which in turn explains that the causes of life clarify the being of which stood before it and such causes amount to same entity.

Drawing from Ph.II.3 and Metaph.I.3 Aristotle’s accounts for four specific causes of things; Modification takes place bestowing to four dissimilar kinds of cause. These causes may also be elucidated as explanations; they describe diverse ways of why the change came to be. The four causes are material cause, which explains what something is made of; formal cause, which explains the form or pattern to which a thing corresponds; efficient cause, which is what we ordinarily mean by “cause,” the original source of the change; and final cause, which is the intended purpose of the change. For example, when making a car, the material cause is the materials the car is made of, the formal cause is the engineers design, the efficient cause is the development of building it, and the final cause is to provide a form of transportation to arriving and leaving one place to another. Natural objects, such as fl...

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Bibliography

Aristotle. "Selections ." Aristotle. Physics . Cambridge: Hackett, 1995. 194b, 24-25.

Aristotle. "Selections ." Aristotle. Physics . Cambridge: Hackett, 1995. 194b, 27.

Aristotle. "Selections ." Aristotle. Physics . Cambridge: Hackett, 1995. 194b, 30.

Aristotle. "Selections ." Aristotle. Physics . Cambridge: Hackett, 1995. 194b, 31.

Aristotle. "Selections ." Aristotle. Physics . Cambridge: Hackett, 1995. 195a, 24-25.

Aristotle. "Selections ." Aristotle. Physics . Cambridge: Hackett, 1995. 198a, 25-30.

Aristotle. "Selections ." Aristotle. Metaph . Cambridge: Hackett, 1995. 983a, 24-26.

Aristotle. "Selections ." Aristotle. Metaph . Cambridge: Hackett, 1995. 983a, 26-28.

Aristotle. "Selections ." Aristotle. Metaph . Cambridge: Hackett, 1995. 983b, 9-10.

Aristotle. "Selections ." Aristotle. Metaph . Cambridge: Hackett, 1995. 983b, 12-13.
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