The Causation Holon
Aristotle’s Theory of Causation presented within the concepts of an open system, where the Material Cause is embedded within the Formal Cause, formed the Causation Holon. From the Matter-Being Paradigm, the Material Cause is embedded within an Observer-Observed State for all Open Systems. This modification of Aristotle’s Causation Theory is shown in the Holon Diagram Formulated below.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle
- Material cause describes the material out of which something is composed. Thus the material cause of a table is wood, and the material cause of a car is rubber and steel. It is not about action. It does not mean one domino knocks over another domino.
- The formal cause is its form, i.e. the arrangement of that matter. It tells us what a thing is, that any thing is determined by the definition, form, pattern, essence, whole, synthesis or archetype. It embraces the account of causes in terms of fundamental principles or general laws, as the whole (i.e., macrostructure) is the cause of its parts, a relationship known as the whole-part causation. Plainly put the formal cause is the idea existing in the first place as exemplar in the mind of the sculptor, and in the second place as intrinsic, determining cause, embodied in the matter. Formal cause could only refer to the essential quality of causation. A more simple example of the formal cause is the blueprint or plan that one has before making or causing a human made object to exist.
- The efficient cause is “the primary source”, or that from which the change or the ending of the change first starts. It identifies ‘what makes of what is made and what causes change of what is changed’ and so suggests all sorts of agents, nonliving or living, acting as the sources of change or movement or rest. Representing the current understanding of causality as the relation of cause and effect, this covers the modern definitions of “cause” as either the agent or agency or particular events or states of affairs. More simply again that which immediately sets the thing in motion. So take the two dominos this time of equal weighting, the first is knocked over causing the second also to fall over. This is effectively efficient cause.
- The final cause is its purpose, or that for the sake of which a thing exists or is done, including both purposeful and instrumental actions and activities. The final cause or telos is the purpose or end that something is supposed to serve, or it is that from which and that to which the change is. This also covers modern ideas of mental causation involving such psychological causes as volition, need, motivation or motives, rational, irrational, ethical, and all that gives purpose to behavior.
Remember, according to the Matter-Being Paradigm, this is a biological universe whose reality is defined by individual observer-observed communication constrained within the following Reference Frame Holon,
We can now formulate the Causation Holon for the Universe.
Finally, the Universe’s Causation Holon is the integrated Holon whose three components are [a—b—c], [d—e—f] and the Big Bang Holon shown above.
The Remaining Holon is the Causation Holon for Human Mind, which is shown in the diagram formula below.
This completes the Holon Causation formulation as presented with the Matter-Being Paradigm.
