What is Aristotle's explanation of causality?

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Aristotle also taught that knowledge of a thing, beyond its classification and description, requires an explanation of causality , or why it is. He posited four causes or principles of explanation: the material cause (the substance of which the thing is made); the formal cause (its design); the efficient cause (its maker or builder); and the final cause (its purpose or function). In modern thought the efficient cause is generally considered the central explanation of a thing, but for Aristotle the final cause had primacy.

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