Cause : définition métaphysique et philosophique

The term cause (from the Latin causa, “reason,” “motive,” “origin”) designates that by which something is, becomes, or is known. In philosophy and metaphysics, a cause is that which accounts for a being, an event, or an effect, whether in its existence, its nature, or its manifestation.

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The notion of cause is one of the most fundamental in all philosophy. It answers the question “why?” and makes it possible to trace an effect back to that which produces, explains, or grounds it. The search for causes thus constitutes one of the foundations of rational knowledge.

In Aristotle’s philosophy, causality is not reduced to the mere mechanical production of an effect. Every reality can be understood through four distinct and complementary causes:

the material cause, that out of which a thing is made;
the formal cause, that which gives it its nature or determination;
the efficient cause, that which produces it or brings it into existence;
the final cause, the end or purpose for the sake of which it exists.

Thus, in the case of a statue, the bronze is the material cause, the represented form the formal cause, the sculptor the efficient cause, and the artistic intention the final cause.

Modern thought has often reduced causality to efficient causation alone, favoring mechanical and quantitative explanations of phenomena. While this reduction contributed to the development of the experimental sciences, it also led to the gradual eclipse of the notions of form, finality, and intrinsic meaning.

Metaphysics also distinguishes secondary causes from the First Cause. Secondary causes are the natural or created causes that operate within the world. They possess genuine efficacy, yet their power to act ultimately depends upon a higher cause. The First Cause, by contrast, is that which gives secondary causes themselves both their existence and their causal power.

In the classical tradition, God is thus understood as the First Cause. He is not merely the first cause in a temporal sequence of causes, but the transcendent cause of being itself. He is the cause of the existence of things before being the cause of their transformations.

This distinction avoids two opposite errors. Deism tends to distance God from the world by assigning Him only an initial role; occasionalism tends to deny the real efficacy of natural causes. Classical doctrine maintains instead that God acts through secondary causes without suppressing or replacing them.

Metaphysics also distinguishes cause from condition. A condition is that which allows an effect to occur without itself producing the effect. Oxygen, for example, is a condition for combustion, but it is not by itself the cause of a fire. Likewise, certain correlations observed by the sciences are insufficient to establish a causal relationship.

Another essential distinction is that between horizontal causality and vertical causality. Horizontal causality is the kind observed by the sciences in the succession of phenomena: one cause produces an effect, which in turn becomes the cause of another effect. It describes relationships within the manifested world. Vertical causality, by contrast, concerns the dependence of an effect upon its principle. It no longer asks, “Which phenomenon produces another?” but rather, “From where does this being derive its existence, nature, or intelligibility?”

Thus, a work of art may be explained horizontally through the painter’s gestures, the pigments employed, or the historical circumstances of its production. Yet it cannot be fully understood without reference to the creative intention that vertically gives it meaning. Likewise, the world may be studied scientifically through its mechanisms while remaining metaphysically dependent upon a Principle that grounds its being.

Metaphysical reflection therefore leads to the question of the ultimate foundation of all causality. Why do causes produce effects? Why is there an intelligible order linking phenomena together? Such questions point to a causality deeper than observable mechanisms and lead to the notion of a Principle from which both the being of things and their intelligibility proceed.

In the traditional perspective, causality is therefore not merely a chain of phenomena; it expresses the very order of reality. Visible causes refer to invisible causes, natural causes to principial causes, secondary causes to the First Cause. The knowledge of causes thus becomes a path toward the understanding of principles.

The notion of cause consequently appears as a bridge between physics, philosophy, and metaphysics. It enables us to understand not only how things occur, but also why they exist and by virtue of what principle they are what they are.

See also: First Cause, Secondary Cause, Contingency, Creation, Being, Finality, Form, Participation, Principle, Substance.

Cause

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Further Reading

See also:

Secondary Causes

Contingency