1. Chapter 18

2. * Causality (p. 105) * To Cause (p. 105) * Instrumental Cause (p. 110) * Principal of Causality (p. 113)

3. * Causality: The Act of Causing * To Cause: To bring something to be * The Study of Causality: The study of substance in its becoming or in its acting on another. * When a substance come to be, it is the effect of a cause * Effect is what comes into being * Cause is what brings it into being

4. * Most effects have a cause * There can be a being without any causing * A carpenter who refuses to create is still a carpenter * “being” does not imply causing or a cause. * A being that was not caused would be God. * God causes, not because He must, because he chooses.

5. * Hey, you know this! * Cause, Condition and occasion * Cause: Really flows into an effect * Condition: That which is required for the cause to produce the effect * Occasion: The situation which favors the actuation of a present cause * Whatever influences a thing in its becoming is a cause of that thing * Materials can influence being * The form a being takes influence’s being * The maker of a thing influences being * The purpose of a thing influences being

6. * A Person can become a material cause of a supernatural act, like charity. * In a supernatural act of charity the person doing the act is the material cause and the grace from God is the Formal Cause.

7. * What makes something to be? What brings about the reality of a being? * Creatures truly do cause other things to be, they produce beings * This is an example of God’s power * It is more powerful to share the power to create with your creatures, than it is to simply retain that power to yourself. * We do really cause and this makes us responsible for our actions.

8. * Efficient Cause is divided into Principal and Instrumental * Instrumental Cause: That which acts on an effect by virtue of the fact it is moved by the principal agent. * A pen is an instrumental cause of writing. It acts by virtue of the principal agent which is the person controlling it. * Free persons can also become the instrumental cause of something for God, but God would take into account their power, intelligence and freedom.

9. * The final cause is what motivates the efficient cause to act. * The need for a table motivates the woodworker to make one. * It is called the final cause because it is the last to be reached. * It is also the first cause because it sets all else in motion.

10. * Non-Intelligent agents are directed by nature. * Intelligent agents direct themselves. * They (you) recognize an end as an end. * They (you) choose the appropriate means to their end. * They (you) don’t really choose your ends so much as the means you will use to reach them. * Only humanity can recognize the absolute last end: God * Only humanity has the ability to choose the means with which to deal with it.

11. * Definition: If there is motion, there is something that moves, and something must move it. * Corollary: every effect implies a cause * There have been attempts to refute this * See p. 113 for the attempt by David Hume * If the principal can be disproved it will provide solid reason to deny the existence of God, or a first cause.