English

Noun

efficient cause ‎(plural efficient causes)

1. (philosophy, natural science) The being or event which physically brings about the change or motion that produces another occurrence or thing.
   • 1781, Samuel Johnson, quoting Sir Richard Blackmore in Lives of the Poets:

     As to its efficient cause, wit owes its production to an extraordinary and peculiar temperament in the constitution of the possessor of it, in which is found a concurrence of regular and exalted ferments, and an affluence of animal spirits, refined and rectified to a great degree of purity.

   • 1859, Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, ch. 7:

     There must be some efficient cause for each slight individual difference, as well as for more strongly marked variations which occasionally arise.

   • 1895, Henry James, The Altar of the Dead, ch. 6:

     [H]e turned the corner where for years he had always paused; simply not to pause was an efficient cause for emotion.

   • 1998, R. J. Schork, Greek and Hellenic Culture in Joyce, ISBN 9780813016092, p. 176 (Google preview):

     In the production of a statue of Athena for the Parthenon, the bronze is the material cause; the shape and design of the statue is the formal cause; the sculptor is the efficient cause; the honor of the goddess (and the glory of Athens) is the final cause.

Usage notes

• One of the four kinds of causes recognized in Aristotelianism: material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, final cause.

References

• efficient cause at OneLook Dictionary Search