Abstract

Philosophical theorizing has been concerned at least since ancient Greek thinkers with the problem of connecting events as causes and effects. For Aristotle causes are first principles that explain the ‘why of things’, but they are also ‘efficient’ in that they are the ‘source of change or rest’. In this sense Aristotelian efficient causation is very close to the attempts made by contemporary philosophy of science to give an account of how something gives rise to something else.