AN EXPOSITION OF ARISTOTLE’S IDEA OF CAUSATION

Abstract

This paper exposes Aristotle’s principle of causality. Aristotle supposes that we understand something only when we know its causes. Accordingly, he further presupposes that in our effort to know the thing, we cannot separate causation and explanation – the causes and the becauses. To this end, Aristotle furthers his argument with the four causes: formal, material, efficient and final causes. Consequently, this paper, using phenomenological tools of enquiry presents these four causes. Although the paper grants the limitations of Aristotle’s causality, it nevertheless opines that Aristotle’s concept of the cause has a far more overarching influence as it provides the causal model of explanation of things even in our contemporary scholarship. It is the conclusion of this essay that, although distinct, Aristotle’s notion of causation marks the point of departure for the modern notion of causation.