We spend much of our time mulling over what causes events to happen: what makes
the thief steal the diamonds? What makes an animal a skunk, and not a raccoon?
Psychologists often look for common ways of classifying animals or human
motives that are universal, and can be found in all cultures. Records from
Ancient Greece, though, show that some civilizations have very different ways
of thinking about causation from the modern West (Lloyd, 1995). Greek writers
from the time of Aristotle (born 384 B.C.) onwards distinguished between the
matter a thing is made of, the form it takes, the final cause, the function or
purpose something serves, and the efficient cause, or "excuse" that
brings an event about. A wooden cylinder will roll if pushed (the efficient
cause), in part because it is the nature of cylinders to roll (the final
cause). The Greeks applied their ideas to medicine, especially the causes of
illness, as well as legal disputes. Yet only the efficient cause-the push-looks
like a "cause" to most English speakers.
