‘Efficient’ and ‘Final’ Causes

‘Efficient’ and ‘Final’ Causes

This is Aristotle’s distinction between what gets things done (efficient cause) and the end product (final cause). With humans, it is the accomplishment of the end product that equates to ‘good’. An example is sexuality – an efficient cause of sex is enjoyment: because humans enjoy sex, the species has survived through procreation. However, the final cause of sex (the thing God designed it for) is procreation. Therefore sex is only good if procreation is possible.

Put another way, the efficient cause is a statement of fact or a description. If we ask why people have sex, we might talk about attraction, psychological…