Authors/Aristotle/metaphysics/l5/c2

Chapter 2 Cause

Latin	English
Causa vero dicitur uno quidem modo ex quo fit aliquid * inexistente, ut es statue et argentum fiale et horum genera. ↵ alio vero species et exemplar; hoc autem est ratio ipsius quid erat esse et huius genera (ut eius quod diapason duo ad unum et totaliter numerus) et partes quae in ratione. Amplius unde principium permutationis primum aut quietis, ut consiliator ↵ causa, et pater pueri et omnino efficiens facti et permutans permutati. Amplius ut finis; hoc autem est quod * cuius causa, ut ambulandi sanitas. Nam propter quid ambulat? Dicimus: ut sanetur; et dicentes ita putamus reddidisse cau↵sam. Et quaecumque movente alio intermedia fiunt finis, ut sanitatis attenuatio aut purgatio aut pharmaca aut organa; haec ↵ namque omnia finis gratia sunt, differunt autem ab invicem tamquam entia haec quidem ut organa illa vero ut opera.	Chapter 2. Cause means (1) that from which, as immanent material, a thing comes into being, e.g. the bronze is the cause of the statue and the silver of the saucer, and so are the classes which include these. (2) The form or pattern, i.e. the definition of the essence, and the classes which include this (e.g. the ratio 2:1 and number in general are causes of the octave), and the parts included in the definition. (3) That from which the change or the resting from change first begins; e.g. the adviser is a cause of the action, and the father a cause of the child, and in general the maker a cause of the thing made and the change-producing of the changing. (4) The end, i.e. that for the sake of which a thing is; e.g. health is the cause of walking. For "Why does one walk?" we say; "that one may be healthy"; and in speaking thus we think we have given the cause. The same is true of all the means that intervene before the end, when something else has put the process in motion, as e.g. [13b] thinning or purging or drugs or instruments intervene before health is reached; for all these are for the sake of the end, though they differ from one another in that some are instruments and others are actions.
Ergo causae fere totiens dicuntur. Accidit autem multotiens dictis cau↵sis et multas eiusdem esse causas non secundum accidens, ut statue statue factiva et es non secundum aliquid aliud sed in quantum statua; sed non eodem modo, sed hoc quidem ut materia illud vero ut unde motus.	These, then, are practically all the senses in which causes are spoken of, and as they are spoken of in several senses it follows both that there are several causes of the same thing, and in no accidental sense (e.g. both the art of sculpture and the bronze are causes of the statue not in respect of anything else but qua statue; not, however, in the same way, but the one as matter and the other as source of the movement),
Et ad invicem causae sunt, ut laborare causa est euexie et * haec laborandi; sed non ↵ eodem modo, verum hoc quidem ut finis illud vero ut principium motus.	and that things can be causes of one another (e.g. exercise of good condition, and the latter of exercise; not, however, in the same way, but the one as end and the other as source of movement).
Amplius autem idem quandoque contrariorum est causa; quod enim presens huius est causa, hoc absens causamur quandoque de contrario, ut absentiam gubernatoris deperditioƿ↵nis, cuius erat presentia causa salutis; utraque vero, et presentia et privatio, causae sunt ut moventes.	Again, the same thing is the cause of contraries; for that which when present causes a particular thing, we sometimes charge, when absent, with the contrary, e.g. we impute the shipwreck to the absence of the steersman, whose presence was the cause of safety; and both the presence and the privation are causes as sources of movement.
Omnes vero causae dictae in quatuor modos cadunt manifestissimos. Nam elementa sillabarum et materia factorum et ignis ↵ et terra et talia omnia corporum et partes totius et suppositiones conclusionis ut ex quo causae sunt. Horum autem haec quidem quasi subiectum, ut partes; illa vero ut quod quid erat esse: et totum et compositio et species. Sperma vero et medicus et consiliator et omnino efficiens, omnia unde principium per↵mutationis aut status. Alia vero ut finis et bonum aliorum; nam quod cuius causa optimum et finis aliorum vult esse; nil autem differat dicere sive bonum sive apparens bonum.	All the causes now mentioned fall under four senses which are the most obvious. For the letters are the cause of syllables, and the material is the cause of manufactured things, and fire and earth and all such things are the causes of bodies, and the parts are causes of the whole, and the hypotheses are causes of the conclusion, in the sense that they are that out of which these respectively are made; but of these some are cause as the substratum (e.g. the parts), others as the essence (the whole, the synthesis, and the form). The semen, the physician, the adviser, and in general the agent, are all sources of change or of rest. The remainder are causes as the end and the good of the other things; for that for the sake of which other things are tends to be the best and the end of the other things; let us take it as making no difference whether we call it good or apparent good.
Causae quidem igitur hae et tot sunt specie. Modi vero cau↵sarum numero quidem multi sunt, capitulati vero et hii pauciores. Dicuntur enim causae multipliciter, et ipsarum eiusdem speciei prius et posterius alia quam alia, ut sanitatis medicus et artifex, et eius quod dyapason duplum et numerus, et semper continentia quodcumque singularium.	These, then, are the causes, and this is the number of their kinds, but the varieties of causes are many in number, though when summarized these also are comparatively few. Causes are spoken of in many senses, and even of those which are of the same kind some are causes in a prior and others in a posterior sense, e.g. both the physician and the professional man are causes of health, and both the ratio 2:1 and number are causes of the octave, and the classes that include any particular cause are always causes of the particular effect.
Amplius autem ut ↵ accidens et horum genera, veluti statue aliter Policlitus et aliter ↵ statue factor, quia accidit statue factori Policlitum esse. Et continentia autem accidens, ut homo causa statue aut et totaliter animal, quia Policlitus homo et homo animal. Sunt autem et ↵ accidentium alia aliis remotius et propinquius, ut si albus et musicus causa dicuntur statue, et non solum Policlitus aut homo. Praeter omnia autem et proprie dicta et secundum accidens, haec quidem ut potentia dicuntur illa vero ut agentia, ut ↵ ipsius edificari edificator aut edificans edificator. Similiter autem dicuntur et in quibus causae causae dictis, ut huius statue aut statue aut omnino ymaginis, aut eris huius aut eris aut omnino materie; et in accidentibus similiter. Amplius autem ƿ complexa et haec et illa dicuntur, ut nec Policlitus nec statue factor, sed Policlitus statue factor.	Again, there are accidental causes and the classes which include these; e.g. while in one sense the sculptor causes the statue, in another sense Polyclitus causes it, because the sculptor happens to be [14a] Polyclitus; and the classes that include the accidental cause are also causes, e.g. man – or in general animal – is the cause of the statue, because Polyclitus is a man, and man is an animal. Of accidental causes also some are more remote or nearer than others, as, for instance, if the white and the musical were called causes of the statue, and not only Polyclitus or man . But besides all these varieties of causes, whether proper or accidental, some are called causes as being able to act, others as acting; e.g. the cause of the house's being built is a builder, or a builder who is building. The same variety of language will be found with regard to the effects of causes; e.g. a thing may be called the cause of this statue or of a statue or in general of an image, and of this bronze or of bronze or of matter in general; and similarly in the case of accidental effects. Again, both accidental and proper causes may be spoken of in combination; e.g. we may say not Polyclitus nor the sculptor but Polyclitus the sculptor .
At tamen omnia haec sunt pluralitate sex, dupliciter autem ↵ dicta. Aut enim ut singulare aut ut genus, et ipsius secundum se aut secundum accidens aut ut genus accidentis, aut ut complexa haec aut ut simpliciter dicta. Amplius ut agentia aut ↵ secundum potentiam. Differunt autem in tantum, quod agentia quidem et singularia simul sunt et non sunt, et ipsa et quorum causae, ut hic medens cum hoc conualescente et hic edificator cum hoc edificio. Quod autem secundum potestatem non semper; corrumpuntur enim non simul domus et edificator. ↵	Yet all these are but six in number, while each is spoken of in two ways; for (A) they are causes either as the individual, or as the genus, or as the accidental, or as the genus that includes the accidental, and these either as combined, or as taken simply; and (B) all may be taken as acting or as having a capacity. But they differ inasmuch as the acting causes, i.e. the individuals, exist, or do not exist, simultaneously with the things of which they are causes, e.g. this particular man who is healing, with this particular man who is recovering health, and this particular builder with this particular thing that is being built; but the potential causes are not always in this case; for the house does not perish at the same time as the builder.