Why four categories of causation?

[Steve Johnson <***>]

 

Robert Rosen wrote: "What Aristotle was essentially doing in his discussion of the categories of causation was giving names to, and thereby distinguishing between, certain kinds of relations between events. As we noted in Section V, this is precisely the province of causality, one of the twin pillars supporting our belief in natural law".  Theoretical Biology and Complexity p. 188.

 

The have been arguments on this list as to whether causality is a useful concept. The arguments against causality tend to center around the impossibility to pinpoint a single cause of any observable effect. I don't think Rosen ever had this kind of naive view and unfortunately I could not dig up his quotes (I've read several) that emphasise that he is not arguing that there are specific causes of events but merely that there is a partial ordering on events and a certain relationship between the various types of events.

 

Having put this to rest here are my questions:

 

1) In everything I've read Rosen always takes Aristotelian taxonomy of causes as given. I've never seen an argument that would justify this particular choice. Should we consider Aristotelian taxonomy of causes a foundational axiom in the Rosennean view? Does it have the same status as the concept of Natural Law itself?

 

2) Are there other taxonomies of causes?

 

3) Is "Efficient Cause" a rigorously defined concept? Rosen (and others) in describing this concept typically give the Aristotelian example of the "house" with bricks as material cause, construction workers as efficient cause, blueprint as formal cause, and intent to dwell as the final cause. I've never seen any more rigorous definition besides invocation of this admittedly useful metaphor. What is the definition of efficient cause? Can anyone provide a defintion that does not invoke the house metaphor? Efficient cause is key to Rosen's argument in Life Itself so I think it's important to have a consensus on what it means.

 

Thanks!

 

 - Steve

 

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