Some Midterm Help from Martin (distributed in the Forum, today Friday).

The following questions are meant to guide you in distinguishing four of the Aristotelian causes, and to perform an analysis using those four causes. You may recall that the idea of a factor, that is: of something that makes a contribution to something, is a better concept than our idea of a cause.

Before you start: Identify a substance or reality. Either that substance itself will be the object of your analysis, or that substance will be involved with the item you analyze or the item you invoke in your analysis. You may want to ask: What are the things that play a role here? What kinds of things are there, in the domain under scrutiny? Identifying the substance is important also, because not all substances are equally suited for the same kind of question.

 

Form and matter are best addressed jointly, because what counts as matter is matter relative to a form, and what counts as form is normally the form of a matter.

Inquiry into the (essential) formal ‘cause:’

Q: What is it for x to be an F?

What is it for whatever to be (a piece of) straw, (a lump of) coal, (a) bean,

    1. woman, (a) pot, (a) fire, (a) bridge, (a) brook, (a) thread, (a) needle,

(a) seam, . . .?

You can also try this:

Here we have something that is made of/consists of/made up of G. What kind

of thing is it?

Here we have something made up of flesh and blood and female organs.

What kind of ‘thing’ is it?

Here we have something that is of steel. What kind of thing is it?

Here we have something that is of straw and spans a waterway. What is it?

Here you can also ask: What is it from the point of view of its end?

Inquiry into the material ‘cause:’

Q: If this is an F, what does it consist of?

If this is an F, what is this F made from?

If this is an F, what constitutes its being an F? (the Smiley and its constituents)

What is it that is formed by the form F?

If this is a lump of coal, of what does it consist?

If this is a brook, what makes up a brook?

If this is a house, what is this house made from, and what do its parts consist of?

If this is a needle, out of what is it made?

Inquiry into the efficient ‘cause:’

Let this be an F, out of what does it come? (for an ‘out of’ that precedes it and

that has contributed to that F’s coming about.)

Let this be an F, what has been an active factor in its coming about?

Let this be an F, what is its source?

Let this be the bursting of that bean. What, in the world that precedes

that bursting, is an active contributor to the bean’s bursting?

Let this be a fire. What, in the world that precedes its burning, is an active

factor in its coming about as a fire?

Let this be a straw, what in the world precedes its being a straw and has

contributed to its becoming a straw?

Note: efficient ‘causes’ come in chains, some contribute more directly to the item’s coming about, others are more remote and are mediated by more direct factors. But efficient causes also come at different levels of explanation. We explain something by pointing to producing agents (the artist), to substances that function as active factors (the match), to actions and events involving substances that are active factors (the striking of the match), and to structural conditions that are active factors (the know-how of the doctor). Several of these will coexist side by side in efficient accounts. (The doctor and his know-how may be efficient ‘causes’). This may become quite complex. Consider the brook, and ask out of which it comes that this brook is running here? You will need water at the surface at a higher elevation (source), the lowest continuous slope downward traced in the landscape passing right here (structural conditions), and the water entering this gradient at a higher point. Together, they are ‘that out of which’ the running water at this place comes.

Inquiry into the final ‘cause:’

Q: Let this be an F. What is its purpose? (good for artifacts)

Let this be an F, what is it for? (good for artifacts and for items that are

useful to us)

Let this be an F, what is its function? (e.g. an organ, and in general for

things like motors, pistons, etc. that have function)

Let this be an F, what can it be used for? (for things that do not have

a function inscribed into them).

Let this be an F, in which way does it resist being used in manner G?

(negative finality, the obstacle).

Let this be an F, what has it been made for?

Let this be an F, for what reason is it done? (For an F that is an action).

Let this be an F, how does its being F include an inner purpose for the F itself?

(only for living beings; their purpose to be actively involved in becoming

and being the best individuals within the potential of their form of life.)