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Full Idea
The first type of cause is that from which a thing is made (bronze of a statue); the second type is the form or pattern (ratio 2:1 for the octave); the third is the source (the deviser of a plan); the fourth type is the end (as health causes walking).
Gist of Idea
The four causes are the material, the form, the source, and the end
Source
Aristotle (Physics [c.337 BCE], 194b23-)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Physics', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 1996], p.39
A Reaction
[Compressed quotation] These four became known as the Material Cause, the Formal Cause, the Efficient Cause, and the Final Cause. For a statue they are the bronze, the shape, the sculptor, and the beauty. We now focus on the Efficient Cause.
8332 | The four causes are the material, the form, the source, and the end [Aristotle] |
4850 | A final cause is simply a human desire [Spinoza] |
5059 | Power rules in efficient causes, but wisdom rules in connecting them to final causes [Leibniz] |
4579 | The idea of a final cause is very uncertain and unphilosophical [Hume] |
14865 | We do not know the nature of one single causality [Nietzsche] |