565 Multiplicative causality

It is customary to see multiple causality as adding up causes: A + B + C: The star violinist had a good violin, great talent, and was well trained. The olympic runner had great training and good running shoes. In this blog I have repeatedly used Aristotle’s  multiple causality of action: the efficient cause (the actor), final cause (purpose), material cause (matter used), formal cause ( method), conditional cause (weather, market, laws) and exemplary cause (example to be followed). Often, however, causes are multiplicative: AxBxC, or a mixture of additive and multiplative: A+BxC. The point here is that one cause can influence, reinforce or limiet the other. In the multiplicative form, if one is zero, the whole is zero.,

In fact, perhaps in most cases one cause is conditional upon one or more other causes. The conditional cause can facilitate or inhibit the final cause. For example, the market may not yield a demand for a product, or laws may forbid the use of certain materials. There are strings of causes: A à B àC, where B is an intermediate cause. More complicated causal structures arise, as in figure 1, where B causes C, and C causes D, A is a cause of B and D, but not of C. In fact, Aristotelian causality has this structure, as illustrrted in figure 2: The final cause A motivates the agent B who yields the method C, independently of A, that produces D.

 

 In the case of the violinist, the musician’s talent and training affect the quality of the violin. In the case of the athlete, the shoes enhance or obstruct the talent and training of the athlete.

 One can go further and investigate the sources of the final cause, such as background and life history of the agent, the effect of training on the formal cause, and one can disentangle the conditional cause in effects of technology (on the formal cause), industry (on the material cause), or fashion (on the exemplary cause).