Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: Collection: Papers bei B. Lonergan

Titel: Collection: Papers bei B. Lonergan

Stichwort: Wirkursache als "Influx"; Durandus, Molina, and Banez (3 verschiedene Interpretationen von Wirkursache als "Influx"

Kurzinhalt: First, one may say that in such a causal series there are two and only two instances of influx and so two and only two real instances of efficient causality: from A to B, and from B to C; but there is no third influx from A to C; accordingly ...

Textausschnitt: 1 Efficient Causality and the Causal Series

52b To grasp the author's position, it is necessary, even at the cost of considerable space, to find a more general viewpoint than he presents. The fundamental issue is the nature of the reality of efficient causality; that is, What is the reality which, if existent, makes the proposition, A is the efficient cause of B, true, but which, if nonexistent, makes it false? There are two answers. One may affirm that the desired necessary and sufficient condition is a causally efficient influence proceeding from A to subject of) B. On the other hand, one may consider the foregoing either a mere modus significandi or else sheer imagination, to affirm that the required necessary and sufficient condition is a real relation of dependence in B with respect to its ground and source, its id a quo, A. In this view, the reality of efficient causality is the relativity of the effect qua effect; one also may say that it is the relative element in the Aristotelian actio, actus huius ut ab hoc; that is, B is an act pertaining to A inasmuch as it is from A. (Fs) (notabene)


1.1 Efficient Causality as Influx

54a When one thinks of efficient causality as influx and attempts to analyse the causal series (A is efficient cause of B, and B is efficient cause of C), one may arrive at any of three opinions. First, one may say that in such a causal series there are two and only two instances of influx and so two and only two real instances of efficient causality: from A to B, and from B to C; but there is no third influx from A to C; accordingly, mediate causality is not a true species of causality but merely a name for the combination of two other instances. However, one may dislike this conclusion and desire to make the mediate causec really and truly a cause. Hence, secondly, one may say that in the causal series there are, at least at times, three instances of influx and so three instances of efficient causality: not only from A to B, and from B to C, but also a third from A to C; simultaneously both A and B exert an influx to produce C. Now while this makes A the efficient cause of C not only in name but also in reality, it does so by making A the immediate cause of C; mediate causality is not saved. Hence, thirdly, one may say that there is a real difference between B as effect of A and B as cause of C, and this real difference is what explains the reality of mediate efficient causality; first, an influx from A gives B'; secondly, an influx from A gives B"; thirdly, an influx from B" gives C. Thus efficient causality thought of as influx yields three views of the causal series, and one may note that there is some resemblance between these three views and the views respectively of Durandus, Molina, and Banez. I shall not say that Durandus, Molina, Banez, or any of their followers arrived at their positions in the foregoing manner' I am not engaged in history but in listing theoretical possibilities, and merely draw attention to a resemblance among three possibilities ano three historical opinions. (Fs) (notabene)