Sentence examples for efficient causation from inspiring English sources

The arguments by Aquinas known as the Five Ways the argument from motion, from efficient causation, from contingency, from degrees of perfection, and from final causes or ends in nature are generally regarded as cosmological.

Paley's teleology was undermined in the 19th century by the emergence of evolutionary theory, which was able to explain the machinelike nature of biological organisms as having come about entirely through efficient causation in a long process of natural selection.

But what is efficient causation?

Physical causation, for him, is parasitic upon the more basic kind of causation, namely efficient causation.

Efficient causation is necessitation of the sort that Hume thought not to exist.

The operation of some actuality upon some potentiality is an instance of efficient causation.

According to Sarasvathy (2001, p. 249), "it is necessary emphasize that effectuation processes are not posited as "better" or "more efficient" than causation processes".

Ultimately, Leibniz offers a theory of intrasubstantial causation that incorporates efficient, final, and formal causes, where only substances or better yet, their powers can be efficient causes and perceptions (probably) have a teleological as well as a formal function.

We do not find such a view in Leibniz; Leibniz's theory of causation incorporates both efficient and final causes, harkening back to Aristotle even while it tries to explain away real causation among phenomenal things with the infamous pre-established harmony.

Hence Nature is not a teleological system, natural phenomena do not have purposes, and all causation between modes is efficient, none final.

Leibniz's account of intrasubstantial causation therefore involves a tight connection between efficient, final, and formal causes.