PHILOS 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 30: Four Causes, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Fallacy
Document Summary
1) formal cause - the form of things; in animals the soul; the formal relations in geometrical figures; the structure in formed" human artifacts. 2) material cause that out of which a thing is made; bone and flesh in animals; bronze in the case of a statue; wood for a table. 3) efficient cause a moving cause which gives rise to change or movement in things; the will as cause of action; the baseball bat wielded and the movement of the ball. 4) final cause the end or goal of things and actions; that for the sake of which things are or become; the good or perfection" of every being. Thomas aquinas - 3rd way - argument from contingency. 1) we see in the world things which have the possibility either to be or not to be. That is to say, their existence is contingent, not necessary. 2) if is not possible that all things are contingent, because: