Aristotle

==== Four causes ====
{{Main|Four causes}}
[[File:Aristotle's Four Causes of a Table.svg| thumb | upright=1.5 | Aristotle argued by analogy with woodwork that a thing takes its form from [[four causes]]: in the case of a table, the wood used ([[material cause]]), its design ([[formal cause]]), the tools and techniques used ([[efficient cause]]), and its decorative or practical purpose ([[final cause]]).{{sfn| Leroi | 2015 | pages=88–90}}]]

Aristotle suggested that the reason for anything coming about can be attributed to four different types of simultaneously active factors. His term ''aitia'' is traditionally translated as "cause", but it does not always refer to temporal sequence; it might be better translated as "explanation", but the traditional rendering will be employed here.{{sfn| Lloyd | 1996 | pages=96–100, 106–107}}{{sfn| Hankinson | 1998 | page=159}}
* [[Material cause]] describes the material out of which something is composed. Thus the material cause of a table is wood. It is not about action. It does not mean that one domino knocks over another domino.{{sfn| Lloyd | 1996 | pages=96–100, 106–107}}
* The [[formal cause]] is its form, i.e., the arrangement of that matter. It tells one what a thing is, that a thing is determined by the definition, form, pattern, essence, whole, synthesis or archetype. It embraces the account of causes in terms of fundamental principles or general laws, as the whole (i.e., macrostructure) is the cause of its parts, a relationship known as the whole-part causation. Plainly put, the formal cause is the idea in the mind of the sculptor that brings the sculpture into being. A simple example of the formal cause is the mental image or idea that allows an artist, architect, or engineer to create a drawing.{{sfn| Lloyd | 1996 | pages=96–100, 106–107}}
* The [[efficient cause]] is "the primary source", or that from which the change under consideration proceeds. It identifies 'what makes of what is made and what causes change of what is changed' and so suggests all sorts of agents, non-living or living, acting as the sources of change or movement or rest. Representing the current understanding of causality as the relation of cause and effect, this covers the modern definitions of "cause" as either the agent or agency or particular events or states of affairs. In the case of two dominoes, when the first is knocked over it causes the second also to fall over.{{sfn| Lloyd | 1996 | pages=96–100, 106–107}} In the case of animals, this agency is a combination of [[developmental biology|how it develops from the egg]], and [[physiology|how its body functions]].{{sfn| Leroi | 2015 | pages=91–92, 369–373}}
* The [[final cause]] (''telos'') is its purpose, the reason why a thing exists or is done, including both purposeful and instrumental actions and activities. The final cause is the purpose or function that something is supposed to serve. This covers modern ideas of motivating causes, such as volition.{{sfn| Lloyd | 1996 | pages=96–100, 106–107}} In the case of living things, it implies [[adaptation]] to a particular way of life.{{sfn| Leroi | 2015 | pages=91–92, 369–373}}