These substances create the form of an object; Aristotle also questioned what causes these objects to have the characteristics that it portrays? If a chair had only three legs, would it still be a chair?
Aristotle concluded that these questions can be answered in four different ways or four different causes, this was the best way explain why things are the way they are.
The Material cause answers the question for what things are made of, but this was only the first cause meaning that it is not enough on its own. The efficient cause what brings something about like a chiseler chilling a statue, it is how the object comes about. The formal cause is its characteristics, or the category it fits into. Instead of a statue being a lump of marble it is a statue as it has a form.
The final cause is however the final and most significant cause. The final cause sums up the understanding of Aristotle’s thinking of existence. The final cause of a painting for example was to make a beautiful painting for reasons that he had particularly aimed to acquire.
The final cause is the purpose for all objects, the end and full perfection of the made thing. Aristotle believed that once an object had reached its goal to be used as it was intended, the object had achieved goodness.
The final cause, also known as the Prime mover is ultimately the object of everything.
Objects are formed from material by someone changing it into having a purpose, they are always changing, people are growing and material is being sculpted.
The prime mover is the movement of everything, whether being made or a person growing. Aristotle claimed that if A is moving, something must be moving this, which is B, B must also be being used by something which would be C and so on. He believed that this long chain of movers must end and when it did, it would reach the Prime mover, the mover of all. As this prime mover is perfect it cannot move, this means that instead of the prime mover moving C, C is drawn to it as it is drawn towards perfection. As a chair is made into perfection by the three causes, the final cause is where it ends. The prime mover therefore holds perfection but moves everything by drawing them towards it by growth and change it is the source of all movement but it stays motionless. The prime mover, by Aristotle, must remain motionless because if it pushed to give movement, it would evidently be an efficient cause.
The prime mover is believed to have no substance or matter as it cannot perform as humans do with movement of thought as this would be changing, and therefore imperfect. Aristotle claimed that the unmoved mover was everlasting, unchanging and spiritual; the final cause of movement therefore is the love and desire for god. God is perfection and therefore everything wants to change to imitate this perfection, creating movement with out moving. Aristotle perceived the final cause or prime mover as god because god does not depend on anything else existing and eternal so cannot create movement by psychical means and thus must create movement to be drawn to him.
b. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of Aristotle’s ideas about cause.
