Note 35 — Chapter VI · THE STUDY OF NATURE. FUNDAMENTAL POSITIONS.

(2) The nature of force. (a) Force limited to the notion of efficient cause. The Stoics, however, would not agree with Plato and Aristotle so far as to allow to formal and final causes a place side by side with this acting force or efficient cause. If in general anything may be called a cause which serves to bring about a definite result35—and various kinds of causes may be distinguished, according as they bring about this result directly or indirectly, by themselves alone or by the help of others36—in the highest sense there can be, according to the Stoics, only one acting or efficient cause. The form is due to the workman, and is therefore only a part of the efficient cause. The type-form is only an instrument, which the workman employs in his work. The final cause or end-in-chief, in as far as it represents the workman’s intention, is only an occasional cause; in as far as it belongs to the work he is about, it is not a cause at all, but a result. There can be but one pure and unconditional cause, just as there can be but one matter; and to this efficient cause everything that exists and everything that takes place must be referred.37