Aristotlean Causes: Simplified and in a Rosennean Perspective
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The four fashions:
1) The material aition is the raw material, the “heap” of matter without form.
2) The formal aition is the “logos of the essence”. It is the order (logos) which is in the process of being conveyed to the matter so as to give the matter form.
3) The efficient aition is the “primary source of change”. It is that which “brings about” a change in a thing (that is why it is called “primary”), “introducing” form to the matter. (The word ‘efficient’ is really a very poor label, but we are stuck with it, I’m afraid.)
4) The final aition is the form that is the striving toward the realization of an end form or “that for the sake of which” or telos. The aition is not the end itself, but, rather, the form in the present - that is what is “credited with” the eventual achievement of the end (barring unforeseen impediments to that achievement).
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