Brief reminder of Aristotle’s four causes

Having a PhD may be indicative of one’s love for wisdom, but it doesn’t necessarily make one a philosopher. With that in mind, here are Aristotle’s four causes:

• Material cause:
  • what is the object of discourse?
  • what are we talking about?
• Efficient cause:
  • action: what is done to it?
  • actor: who does it?
• Formal cause:
  • which methods are used to do that?
• Final cause:
  • towards what use / what goal?
  • why is this done?
  • what for (in English) / pourquoi (in French) / hvorfor (in Danish) / warum (in German)

A first example

The sentence “To make a dish, a cook operates over the ingredients according to the recipe.” includes all four causes:

• “To make a dish” is the final cause,
• “a cook operates” is the efficient cause (the cook is the actor, and operating is the action),
• “over the ingredients” is the material cause, and
• “according to the recipe” is the formal cause.

A second example

The sentence “Using a toothbrush, Michael Scofield unhinges the prison door to escape.” also includes all four causes:

• “Using a toothbrush” is the formal cause,
• “Michael Scofield unhinges” is the efficient cause (Michael Scofield is the actor, and unhinging is the action),
• “the prison door” is the material cause (with door as the subject and prison as the predicate), and
• “to escape” is the final cause.

Interlude

Harald: Wait. Michael Scofield isn’t an actor, he is a character. Wentworth Miller is the actor who play this character.

Vigfus: That is correct. I just checked on Wikipedia.

Alfrothul: I am reasonably sure that it’s not the point.

Brynja: Right. You guys are crossing levels. Can we move on to the next example?

Harald: Sure.

A third example

Ditto for “My program computes a function over discrete data to predict the weather.”:

• “My program computes” is the efficient cause,
• “a function” is the formal cause,
• “over discrete data” is the material cause (with data as the subject and discrete as the predicate), and
• “to predict the weather” is the final cause.

A fourth example

Ditto for “My recognition algorithm for infinite strings operates in linear time.”: the goal is to recognize, the action is an algorithm, this algorithm operates on infinite strings, and methodologically it proceeds in linear time, i.e., in a time that is proportional to the size of the given strings.

Halcyon: Is this an invitation for critical reading or what?

Mimer: Yup.

Exercise 01

1. Write a few sentences where Aristotle’s four causes are visible.
2. Write a few paragraphs where Aristotle’s four causes are visible, each cause in a separate sentence.

Harald: So we need to do what?

Mimer (patiently): You need to write several sentences and several paragraphs.

Alfrothul: Several sentences and several paragraphs about what?

Mimer: Any topic you fancy.

Brynja: And we write them how?

Mimer: In a way such that Aristotle’s four causes are visible.

Vigfus: Er... Why do we need to do this?

Mimer: To acquire control over your narratives. “I code, therefore I don’t need to think” is no way to go.

René Descartes: This is getting interesting. Do you guys need a chairperson?

Mimer: Mr. Descartes, thanks for stopping by!

Less is more

Sometimes, one cause is enough:

• Material cause:

  Question: What is this rock?

  Answer: Granite.

  Question: What is this liquid?

  Answer: Water.

• Efficient cause:

  Question: What is this painting?

  Answer: A Picasso.

  Question: What is this car?

  Answer: A Renault.

• Formal cause:

  Question: What is this mathematical figure?

  Answer: A triangle.

  Question: What is this game?

  Answer: Chess.

• Final cause:

  Question: What is a pen?

  Answer: Something for writing or drawing.

  Question: What is a ruler?

  Answer: Something for drawing straight lines or measuring.

  Question: What is a pair of compasses?

  Answer: Something for drawing circles.

Summary

Aristotle’s four causes address aspects of a thing. They are often used to define this thing.

Postlude

Harald: What is this liquid?

Alfrothul: Helium.

Halcyon: This is so cool!

Version

Added the interlude and the postlude [03 Apr 2022]

Updated [15 Jan 2022]

Created [14 Jan 2022]