Causality: What Are The Four Causes of Things?: Br. Thomas Davenport, O.P

5
THOMISTIC EVOLUTION
N AT U R A L T H E O L O G Y
T
he first stage of learning usually serious, answers, “Because the sky is
involves coming to grips with the made of lots of little particles of air.
names of things and basic facts Any particular piece of sunlight might
about them, but eventually our desire to hit any particular piece of air and send it
know takes us deeper. This search for deeper off in a random direction, some of it coming
knowledge is exemplified in the question “why,” towards us.”
a multi-faced question that can be answered in a By appealing to the structure of the sky and
myriad of ways. the properties that follow from that structure
Take, for example, 8-year-old Junior asking his Dad has given an argument from form. A for-
Dad, “Why is the sky blue?” Dad simply answers, mal cause describes the shape or organization
“Because the sun is out.” Although even a child of something and all the various activities that
knows that the sky follow from it. While the form of
is only blue during
the day, Dad’s Causality: air may simply be the arrange-
ment of its molecules, in some
What are the Four Causes

statement express-
es an important
point. The sky is not
always blue, and
the reason it is blue
in the day but not
of Things? things, like living organisms, the
form describes not only for the
arrangement of parts, its mole-
at night is because Br. Thomas Davenport, O.P. cules, cells, and organs, but also
of the sun. As an the ordering of those parts to the
intense source of light, the sun causes an effect good of the whole, and the activity that follows
in the sky that lights it up and makes it appear from that ordering.
blue. The sun is an efficient or agent cause of the Junior replies with a further query, “Why is the
sky’s blue color. sky blue ?” Dad presses on, “Because the individ-
Unfortunately, Junior is not so easily satisfied ual molecules that air is composed of are much
and persists asking, “Why is the sky blue during smaller than the wavelength of visible light, the
the day?” Dad replies, “Because the sky absorbs a shorter wavelength blue light is scattered much
lot of the light from the sun, and some of it then more frequently.”
gets showered down on us.” This second reply Here we have an argument from what air is
touches on what is known as “final causality,” made of, its matter. While the organization and
focusing on a natural tendency of the air. Analo- activity of something is ultimately determined
gous to the way we can explain our actions by re- by its formal cause, the matter, or material cause,
ferring to an intended goal, we can explain many limits the forms the thing can take on. The
natural processes as a tendency towards a state density and temperature of air can rearrange its
of stability. As the light from the sun continuous- molecules into various weather patterns, but no
ly excites the air, some of this absorbed energy is natural process can force a bunch of air mol-
released allowing part of the air to momentarily ecules to take on the form of a hippopotamus,
return to its relaxed state. A portion of that ener- however delightful that would be to Junior.
gy reaches us as light, the brightness of the sky. Dad has made a valiant effort at explaining
Once the sun goes down the air is able to simply why the sky is blue to Junior, providing a robust
relax in its natural rest state. explanation from a scientific perspective and
Undeterred, Junior presses on with a sim- even touching on all the various senses in which
ple, “Why?” Dad, seeing that things are getting the question “why?” can be answered. Junior, of
course, may not be satisfied and is limited only excited air molecules to their stable rest states.
by his stamina and his attention span. We could While this aspect of stability is the basis of final
follow Junior and Dad as they probe the scien- causality, it is easier to recognize ends and goal
tific understanding of the beautiful blue sky by in more complicated things. In living things we
looking deeper at each type of see a tendency not towards any
cause, but it is worth making a rest state, but towards specific
few more general comments on states of perfection. A puppy
the idea of causality. tends to become a mature dog
First, the idea of the four which in turn can produce more
causes, formal, material, effi- puppies and dogs. An even
cient and final, dates back to higher aspect of final causality
the ancient Greek philosopher appears in human acts.
Aristotle (384 B.C.–322 B.C.) and We act with particular goals
inspired a greater interest in na- in mind; particular stable states
ture when it was rediscovered in ourselves and in the world
in the thirteenth century. In this which we think will make us
view a cause is an explanation happy. Thus even the world of
for how a thing comes into ethics and morality is rooted
being, how it remains in being, in final causality, the tendency
and eventually, how it ceases toward a stable and perfec-
to be, by becoming something tive state.
else.1 This classical understanding of causal- Sometimes when people hear the phrase final
ity, where causes explain the being of things, causality, also known as teleology, they assume
is not the structure modern science generally that it refers only to this highest form of final
approaches its work with, but it is not contrary causality, the imposition of a rational will on
to modern finding and methods either. Any fully things. To many it seems like this is contrary to
satisfying scientific explanation will touch on the very goal of our study of nature, the study of
all four classical causes. Second, two of these the inner working of the world around us, even
causes, efficient and final, deserve a closer look the inanimate. If teleology is only viewed as
because of their importance for the disputed the external imposition of an intelligent will,
questions that follow. they are right that it is contrary to this study.
In efficient causality it is often possible to However, at its root, teleology begins with the
point to one particular cause that is the imme- basic natural tendency of things to move towards
diate agent of an effect. However, we often ask particular stable states. Indeed, if it were not
about the cause of this immediate cause. Some- for this basic internal tendency of natural things
times, this means tracing a chain of events back to move towards stability, the whole project
in time, for instance tracing sunlight back to the of science would be impossible because there
sun and the nuclear fusion that powers it. Other would be no consistency or order to make nature
times we notice that the immediate agent is di- intelligible. TJ E
rectly moved a moving agent, as when a saw cuts
wood because it is moved by my hand. In this 1 St. Thomas Aquinas De Principiis Naturae, 18.
second case we find an example of instrumental

causality where something acts as a cause, but
only because it is empowered to act by another
higher cause. The saw is an instrumental cause
because it only cuts wood while being moved to
do so by me.
Second, the final causality Dad ascribes to FIND THIS (AND MORE) ON THE WEB:
http:// www.thomisticevolution.org / disputed-questions /
the sky is fairly simple: It involves the return of
causality-what-are-the-four-causes-of-things /

Causality: What Are The Four Causes of Things?: Br. Thomas Davenport, O.P

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Causality: What Are The Four Causes of Things?: Br. Thomas Davenport, O.P

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

5

What are the Four Causes

second case we find an example of instrumental

You might also like