ARISTOTLE 



Terminology 



Technical The following notes on some of the more difficult 

 terms, ^j^^ important of the technical terms used by Aristotle 

 in the De partihus will, I hope, help to explain my 

 translation and also to give some indication of the 

 background of Aristotle's thought. (A fuller account 

 will be found in De Gen. An., Loeb edn.) 



Atrta, ** cause." 



I retain the traditional translation " cause," 

 although perhaps in some contexts " reason " may 

 be a closer rendering, but a variation in the English 

 term might well produce more confusion than clarity. 

 To know, says Aristotle, is to know by means of 

 Causes (see Anal. post. 94< a 20). A thing is explained 

 when you know its Causes. And a Cause is that 

 which is responsible, in any of four senses, for a 

 thing's existence. The four Causes, of which two 

 are mentioned very near the beginning of the first 

 book (639 b 11), are : 



(1) The Final Cause, the End or Object towards 

 which a formative process advances, and ybr the 

 sake of which it advances — the logos, the rational 

 purpose. 



(2) The Motive (or Efficient) Cause, the agent which 

 is responsible for having set the process in motion ; 

 it is that by jvhich the thing is made. 



(3) The Formal Cause, or Form, which is responsible 

 for the character of the course which the process 

 follows (this also is described as the logos, ex- 

 pressing what the thing is). 



(4) The Material Cause, or Matter, out of which the 

 thing is made. 



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