Note 253 — Chapter II · THE FOUNDATIONS OF KNOWLEDGE[248]

Ib. The terms correspond to Aristotle’s ἀρχή and αἴτιον, respectively; no clear distinction was drawn between their meanings by Aristotle, however. Bruno’s aim is to contrast the inwardly active, immanent principle of life and of movement with the transient, outwardly active cause, and to interpret nature, as a whole, as the manifestation of some such inward principle, rather than as a mechanical system to which the impulse was given from without.