View synonyms for final cause

final cause

noun

, Aristotelianism.

final cause

philosophy the end or purpose of a thing or process, as opposed to its efficient cause See cause

First recorded in 1350–1400

Resentment, for example, is an implanted instinct, of which the 'final cause' is to defend us against 'sudden violence.'

The second head to which the passions are referred with relation to their final cause, is society.

The division of four causes also is not amiss: matter, form, the efficient, and end or final cause.

The final cause of creation must be God, just as necessarily as its first cause must be God.

In it the creation returns to God as final cause, from whom it proceeds as first cause, in a mode which is metaphysically final.

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