The 4 types of causes according to Aristotle

Aristotle was a philosopher and researcher born in Ancient Greece. He is considered the father of Western philosophy along with Plato, and his ideas have had a great influence on the intellectual history of the West.

Here we will know the types of causes according to Aristotle: the formal, the material, the efficient and the final. The author thus insists that we must know the principles of natural beings.

• Related article: "How are Psychology and Philosophy similar?"

Aristotle's theory of four causes and his notion of motion

Aristotle developed a very influential theory in the history of thought: the theory of the four causes. This theory was focused on understanding movement, which according to the philosopher has a broader meaning than in our language, and is synonymous with change in general.

According to him, movement can be natural or violent. If it is natural, Aristotle defines it as "every object in the universe has its own place in nature, and the one that is not in its proper place will strive to reach it."

He believes that all change has a cause. According to Aristotle, knowledge (whether scientific or philosophical) it is always knowledge by causes; you know something when you know why (the reason for its existence), that is, the first cause. But he distinguishes up to four types of causes that explain what happens in nature.

Types of causes according to Aristotle

The types of causes according to Aristotle are the formal, the material, the efficient and the final. The first two are intrinsic (they constitute being), and the other two are considered extrinsic. (they explain the future).

In reality and as we will see, the four types of causes according to Aristotle are reduced to two: form and matter; matter as an indeterminate substratum, and form as the principle of all determinations. We are going to know each of the causes according to this Greek thinker.

1. formal cause

What form or structure does what we study have? It's about the form. This is the cause of something in so far as it determines that something, and makes it what it is. It is the specific cause of the entity in question, that is, that of the species. It is the essence of the object or being. This cause determines the second, matter.

If we relate this cause to learning, it would be the theories or models of learning, and they can be expressed in mathematical or computational terms.

• You may be interested: "Aristotle's theory of knowledge, in 4 keys"

2. material cause

What is it made of? This concept of Aristotle's theory of causation refers to the matter in question, the passive, necessary condition as a substratum that receives form and maintains itself through change. From it something is born, arises or becomes; it is something totally indeterminate, for example a stone, wood,...

This cause makes the world is not a world of pure forms (like the Platonic ideas) but a sensitive and changing world.

Applied to learning, it also refers to neural changes, the physical changes in the nervous system that mediate learning.

3. efficient cause

What agent produced it? It is the principle of change or movement, that agent which produces such a change. In other words, it is the engine or stimulus that triggers the development process.

It is the “cause of what the thing is” (for example, that the child is a man, or that the table is the table”). As we have seen, only this cause can set the thing in motion.

These are the necessary and sufficient conditions to produce a behavioral outcome.. It is the prior experience with specific stimuli and responses that produces the change in behavior, signaling the presence of learning.

4. final cause

What function or goal does it serve? It is about the reality or end towards which a being is directed, the goal. It's the perfect act the goal of a being. It is that towards which the individual is oriented. It would be like the plan considered insofar as it is not yet incorporated in the particular thing, that is, nature aspires to it but it has not yet been “achieved”. It is the perfection towards which the thing tends to arrive.

Applied to human beings, this cause allows the subject to adapt to the environment. Learning mechanisms evolve because they provide a reproductive advantage.

Example

Let us think of a simple example to illustrate Aristotle's theory: let us imagine a statue. Following the types of causes of Aristotle, the material cause would be the bronze of the statue, the formal one, the shape of the statue, the efficient one would be the sculptor and the final one would be to adorn a temple.

Bibliographic references:

• Carpi, A. (2004). Principles of philosophy: an introduction to its problematic. Buenos Aires: Glauco.
• Aristotle (2008). Metaphysics. Publisher Alliance.