Aristotle's Concept..."Causes of Being"

1. Course:
Philosophical Foundations of Education
Submitted to:
Dr Mahr Saeed Akhtar
Submitted By:
Syedah Madiha Zia
MP/2013-45

2. 1. Surah al-Baqarah ( ‫سورة‬‫البقرة‬) ayat 117)
‫ا‬َ‫ذ‬ِ‫إ‬َ‫و‬َ‫ل‬ ُ‫ول‬ُ‫ق‬َ‫ي‬ ‫ا‬َ‫م‬َّ‫ن‬ِ‫إ‬َ‫ف‬ ‫ا‬ً‫ر‬ْ‫م‬َ‫أ‬ ‫ى‬َ‫ض‬َ‫ق‬ُ‫ه‬ُ‫ون‬ُ‫ك‬َ‫ي‬َ‫ف‬ ْ‫ن‬ُ‫ك‬
, When He intends a thing, His Command is, “be”, and it is!

3. Na tha kuch to Khuda tha, Kuch na hota to
Khuda hota
Daboya Mujhko hone ne Na hota Mein to
kia hota
(Mirza Ghalib)

4. Causes of Being is the thought originally
presented by Aristotle.
Brief Introduction:
He was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato
and teacher of Alexander the Great.
Born: 384 BC
Died: 322 BC

5. Aristotle's word for "cause" is the
Greek word “aition”, this word is
commonly used to describe
responsibility or blame. He uses this
word in the sense, an explanation for
how a thing came about.

6. Aristotlewrote that "we do not have knowledge of
a thing until we have grasped its why, that is to say, its
cause."
Furthermore, Aristotle believed each thing, whatever it
may be, will have four causes, or types of explanatory
factors by which that thing can be explained.
Aristotle was convinced that his four causes provided an
analytical scheme of general applicability

7. For any thing, Aristotle said these four Questions can be
asked, namely,
1. What is it?
2. What is it Made for?
3. By what is it made?
4. For What end is it made?
The responses to these four questions represent Aristotle’s
Four Causes.

8. There are four types of causes:
• Material cause
• Formal cause
• Efficient cause
• Final cause

9. The material cause of an object is equivalent to
the nature of the raw material out of which the
object is composed
Or simply we can say with what a thing is made
of.

10. Formal cause is a term describing the pattern
which we recognize as being of that particular
type.
It has two types:
The formal cause of a thing has to do with
shape, arrangement, configuration, and so on.
The Exemplary cause is the plan in someone’s
mind that gave rise to a something.

11. The "efficient cause" of an object is which
causes change and motion to start or stop (such
as a painter painting a house) In many cases, this
is simply the thing that brings something about.
For example, in the case of a statue, it is the
person who transforms a block of marble into a
statue
The efficient cause of a thing is the source from
which the thing becomes what it is.

12. The efficient cause may be a cause in:
Itself or by accident
principal or instrumental
first or second
universal or particular
univocal or equivocal
proximate or remote
free or necessary
total or partial
physical or moral
cause in potentiality or cause in actuality.

13. Final cause, or telos, is defined as the purpose,
end, aim, or goal of something.
The final Cause is the ‘end’ for which it is made
Final cause may be defined as that on account
of which something is done.

14. Taking an object of Art, four causes might be
1. A Statue
2. Of Marble
3. By a Sculptor
4. For Decoration
Statue is Formal Cause, Of Marble is
Material cause, By a Sculptor is Efficient
Cause and for Decoration is Final Cause

15. Aristotle summarizes these causes by saying
“All the things that come to be, come to be by
some agency and from something, and come to
be something.”