(September 12, 2013 at 9:15 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: Well, within your folk understanding of cause you are right. In philosophy, you will find distinctions between various types of cause. Unfortunately, I'm debating this topic on two other threads and don't have much time to expand. If you want you can look up these terms: formal cause, efficient cause, material cause, and final cause.
Point of clarification - If I recall correctly, we agreed that the sense in which the term 'cause' is used has changed a lot from Aristotle's time. Aristotle used the term 'cause' to mean 'the explanation for the existence of the object'. We now use the term to refer specifically to the efficient cause. That is, we now use the term in the sense 'that which brings about the existence of the object'. So, I'd say that it isn't the folk understanding of the term that is the issue, it is that the meaning itself has changed over time. With the new meaning is temporal in nature.
