ARISTOTLE 



chronological order of the Causes is different from 

 their logical one. 



(i.) The Motive Cause : the parent oak which 

 produced the acorn. 



(ii.) The Material Cause : the acorn and its nour- 

 ishment. 



(iii.) The Formal Cause. The acorn as it grew 

 into a tree followed a process of development 

 which had the definite character proper to 

 oaks. 



(iv.) The Final Cause : the end towards which 

 the process advanced, the perfected oak-tree. 



Aoyos. 



There are several places in the De partibus where, 

 rather than represent Aoyos by an inadequate or 

 misleading word, I have transliterated it by logos. 

 This serves the very useful purpose of reminding the 

 reader that here is a term of very varied meanings, 

 a term which brings into mind a number of correlated 

 conceptions, of which one or another may be upper- 

 most in a particular case. It is an assistance if we 

 bear in mind that underlying the verb Aeyeu', as it 

 is most frequently used, is the conception of rational 

 utterance or expression, and the same is to be found 

 ^^-ith Aoyos, the noun derived from the same root. 

 Aoyo9 can signify, simply, something spokeii or uttered ; 

 or, with more prominence given to the rationality of 

 the utterance, it can signify a rational explanation, 

 expressive of a thing's nature, of the plan of it ; and 

 from this come the further meanings of principle, or 

 law, and also of definition, or formula, as expressing 

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