In the former two we have now no immediate interest, but with Theology, as "the science of the Divine," [717] the First Moving Cause, which is the source of all other causes, and the original ground of all other things, we are specially concerned, inasmuch as our object is to determine, if possible, whether Greek philosophy exerted any influence upon Christian thought, and has bequeathed any valuable results to the Theology of modern times.
"The Metaphysics" of Aristotle opens by an enumeration of "the principles or causes" [718] into which all existences can be resolved by philosophical analysis. This enumeration is at present to be regarded as provisional, and in part hypothetical--a verbal generalization of the different principles which seem to be demanded to explain the existence of a thing, or constitute it what it is. These he sets down as--
[Footnote 716: ][ (return) ] "Physics are concerned with things which have a principle of motion in themselves; mathematics speculate on permanent, but not transcendental and self-existent things; and there is another science separate from these two, which treats of that which is immutable and transcendental, if indeed there exists such a substance, as we shall endeavor to show that there does. This transcendental and permanent substance, if it exist at all, must surely be the sphere of the divine--it must be the first and highest principle. Hence it follows that there are three kinds of speculative science--Physics, Mathematics, and Theology."--"Metaphysics," bk. x. ch. vii.
[Footnote 717: ][ (return) ] "Metaphysics," bk. i. ch. ii.
[Footnote 718: ][ (return) ] Αἴτιον--cause--is here used by Aristotle in the sense of "account of" or "reason why."
1. The Material Cause (τὴν ὕλην καὶ τὸ ὑποκείµενον)--the matter and subject--that out of which a given thing has been originated. "From the analogy which this principle has to wood or stone, or any actual matter out of which a work of nature or of art is produced, the name 'material' is assigned to this class." It does not always necessarily mean "matter" in the now common use of the term, but "antecedents--that is, principles whose inherence and priority is implied in any existing thing, as, for example, the premises of a syllogism, which are the material cause of the conclusion." [719] With Aristotle there is, therefore, "matter as an object of sense," and "matter as an object of thought."
2. The Formal Cause (τὴν οὐσίαν καὶ τό τι εἶναι)--the being or abstract essence of a thing--that primary nature on which all its properties depend. To this Aristotle gave the name of εἶδος--the form or exemplar according to which a thing is produced.
3. The Moving or Efficient Cause (ὃθεν ἦ ἆρχη τῆς κινήσεως)--the origin and principle of motion--that by which a thing is produced.
4. The Final Cause (τὸ οὗ ἕνεκεν καὶ τὸ ἀγαθόν)--the good end answered by the existence of any thing--that for the sake of which any thing is produced--the ἕνεκα τοῦ, or reason for it. [720] Thus, for instance, in a house, the wood out of which it is produced is the matter (ὕλη), the idea or conception according to which it is produced is the form (εἶδος῏῏µορφή), the builder who erects the house is the efficient cause, and the reason for its production, or the end of its existence is the final cause.
[Footnote 719: ][ (return) ] Encyclopædia Britannica, article "Aristotle;" "Post. Analytic," bk. ii. ch. xi.