Two Examples Of Aristotle's Four Causes

After defining the three principles of nature in previous book and the term ‘nature’ and in Book II, Chapter 1, Aristotle now explains the sources of change . In Book II, chapter 3, Aristotle gives four causes (explanations) to explain why change occurs. The four causes according Aristotle, are: material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, and final cause. Aristotle tells that for understanding individuals and any changes they undergo, we need first to “[ know] their principles” (194b,line 22-25) which can be done through knowledge of each four causes. The four causes provide an explanation about the individual. In this essay, I will give two examples, artificial and natural substance, to give examples of the four causes. The examples are a tree sapling and a marble statue. …show more content…
To put simply, this cause is what an individual is composed of or made of. In the case of a tree sapling, it is made up of wood that constitute orderly to create it. As such, according to Aristotle’s definition of material cause, the wood is the material cause of the tree sapling. In the case of an artifact, when the artisan wants to make a marble statue, he first needs marble which later will be shaped into a statue. The reason why the artisan chooses the marble rock is because it has potentiality and capacity to take form of a marble statue Thus a marble statue came from a marble rock which means that the material cause of a marble statue is marble