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Single Idea 11252
[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 2. Types of cause
]
Full Idea
By the form of a thing, such as a changing human being, Aristotle means that which explains why the matter of this particular thing constitutes the thing that it constitutes: a particular human being.
Gist of Idea
The 'form' of a thing explains why the matter constitutes that particular thing
Source
report of Aristotle (Physics [c.337 BCE]) by Vassilis Politis - Aristotle and the Metaphysics 2.4
Book Ref
Politis,Vasilis: 'Aristotle and the Metaphysics' [Routledge 2004], p.53
A Reaction
If Politis is right then clearly the so-called 'formal cause' is much better understood as the 'formal explanation'. The Greek word for cause/explanation is 'aitia'.
The
21 ideas
with the same theme
[categories of links between successive events]:
13156
|
Fancy being unable to distinguish a cause from its necessary background conditions!
[Plato]
|
5219
|
Types of cause are nature, necessity and chance, and mind and human agency
[Aristotle]
|
11252
|
The 'form' of a thing explains why the matter constitutes that particular thing
[Aristotle, by Politis]
|
11253
|
A 'material' cause/explanation is the form of whatever is the source
[Aristotle, by Politis]
|
13107
|
Causes produce a few things in their own right, and innumerable things coincidentally
[Aristotle]
|
19425
|
In the schools the Four Causes are just lumped together in a very obscure way
[Leibniz]
|
8367
|
Causation is defined in terms of a single sequence, and constant conjunction is no part of it
[Ducasse]
|
15823
|
Some propose a distinct 'agent causation', as well as 'event causation'
[Chisholm]
|
17689
|
Absences might be effects, but surely not causes?
[Armstrong]
|
8435
|
Causes are between events ('the explosion') or between facts/states of affairs ('a bomb dropped')
[Bennett]
|
15253
|
If the concept of a cause includes its usual effects, we call it a 'power'
[Harré/Madden]
|
15555
|
Explaining match lighting in general is like explaining one lighting of a match
[Lewis]
|
8388
|
Causation is either direct realism, Humean reduction, non-Humean reduction or theoretical realism
[Tooley]
|
8389
|
Causation distinctions: reductionism/realism; Humean/non-Humean states; observable/non-observable
[Tooley]
|
11960
|
Singular causation is prior to general causation; each aspirin produces the aspirin generalization
[Molnar]
|
4071
|
Causation can be seen in counterfactual terms, or as increased probability, or as energy flow
[Crane]
|
4789
|
Three divisions of causal theories: generalist/singularist, intrinsic/extrinsic, reductive/non-reductive
[Psillos]
|
17528
|
The dispositional account explains causation, as stimulation and manifestation of dispositions
[Bird]
|
16722
|
Scholastic causation is by changes in the primary qualities of hot, cold, wet, dry
[Pasnau]
|
22605
|
Humeans describe the surface of causation, while powers accounts aim at deeper explanations
[Ingthorsson]
|
22607
|
Time and space are not causal, but they determine natural phenomena
[Ingthorsson]
|