PHI 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Four Causes, Common Cold

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 1101
• Professor: Sardar Hosseini

Document Summary

Causal claim: assertion about the cause of something. Causal argument: justifies, or supports, such a claim. A causes b , if following conditions are met. If a is prior to b o o: the a and b are constantly conjoined (constant conjunction, therefore, event a is followed by b. Move from a premise that two things are associated or correlated to a conclusion that the first is not merely correlated with, but causes, the second. Final cause: the end ( is the end of ) Efficient cause: primary source of the change or rest. Material cause: that out of which something is made. Formal cause: the form or the account of what it is to be. Three different meanings of causation: cause as sufficient condition. We say that a causes b when we mean: whenever a occurs, b must also occur (if a then b) Condition or set of conditions that will produce event a.