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Single Idea 5219

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 2. Types of cause ]

Full Idea

The accepted types of cause are nature, necessity and chance, and also mind and human agency.

Gist of Idea

Types of cause are nature, necessity and chance, and mind and human agency

Source

Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1112a28)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.118

A Reaction

Aristotle accepts this traditional analysis, but also has his own four types (material, formal, efficient and final). Presumably 'nature' would be contingent causes. 'Chance' seems the odd one out. 'Mind' seems to imply free will.

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]