Catholic Word of the Day: FINAL CAUSE, 10-30-10

CatholicReference.net ^ | 10-30-10 | Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary

[Salvation]

Featured Term (selected at random):

FINAL CAUSE

The end or purpose that an intelligent being has in performing an action or producing an effect. Strictly speaking, only created beings can have a final cause in what they do. God cannot properly be motivated by any cause, as though he were in any way changed or modified by his actions. Yet he does act for a purpose, which is really his own infinite goodness and identified with the divine essence.

See Also: CAUSE,

See Also: EFFICIENT CAUSE,

See Also: FIRST CAUSE,

See Also: FORMAL CAUSE,

See Also: FREE CAUSE,

See Also: MATERIAL CAUSE,

See Also: MORAL CAUSE,

See Also: NECESSARY CAUSE,

See Also: SECONDARY CAUSE

All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

[Salvation]

This seems like a good thread to compare these different aspects of cause to action.

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CAUSE

A principle from which something originates with consequent dependence. It is a being that in some way directly affects the being or change of something else. It is that which gives existence in some way to another or is the reason for the existence of another being.

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EFFICIENT CAUSE

An agent in the production of any effect. It is that which, by its activity or exercise of power, produces existence or change in another.

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FIRST CAUSE

God as the first cause of all things, because he is the first in the series of all other causes. Also, God as immediately operating in all finite causality, as the underlying cause on which all other causes constantly depend for their

[Salvation]

FORMAL CAUSE

The specific element in a being which communicates itself to the indeterminate or less determinate element and together with this matter or substratum constitutes the whole being. One of the four principal causes in Thomistic philosophy.

[Salvation]

MATERIAL CAUSE

That out of which something is produced or made. The passive element in any change, which is united with the active element to form one physical being. The substratum in every change that itself remains unchanged.

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FREE CAUSE

An agent acting from knowledge and with deliberate purpose, as distinct from a necessary cause.

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MORAL CAUSE

A free cause as distinguished from a necessary one. The opposite of a physical cause. One that acts as a motive for the performance of a free action or serves as an occasion that favors the action of a free cause.

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NECESSARY CAUSE

An agent that acts according to compulsory tendencies of its nature, and not freely or from conscious intent. It is a naturally determined agent that cannot not act the way it does.

[Salvation]

SECONDARY CAUSE

A created cause that is totally dependent on the First Cause, who is God. It is a cause that can produce a certain kind of effect but cannot produce the being or existence of the effect.

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Catholic Word of the Day – links will be provided later by another FReeper.

 

Calvinism/Armianism	Aseity	Humanism
Murder	Luna	Meta-Ousiosis
Renunciation	I. H. S.	Peace of the Church
Bilocation	Marriage Bond	Epikeia
Scapular Medal	Clandestinity	Donatism
Sign	Altar Bread	Curse
Chrismation	Religious State	Clerics of the Pontifical Chapel
Nehemiah	Age of Discretion	Formal Cause
Monarchianism	Longinus	Giants
Born Again	Christians in Israel	Liturgy of the Hours
Chantry Schools	Allegorical Sense	Ruthenian Rite
Sarum Rite	Gorgias	Aureole
Hospitalers	Epistle to Titus	Ars Antiqua
Matrimonii Sacramentum	Christian Names	Church Militant
Capital Sins	Rebekah	Nuptial
Religionum Laicalium	Final Cause

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