Final cause
| Latin | Causa finalis; finis |
|---|---|
| Treatise | Summa theologiae I, q. 44 a. 4; I–II, q. 1 |
| Controlling authority | Catechism 293–308; Dei Filius |
| Doctrinal standing | God created for his glory; final cause as cause of causes is philosophical |
| School | Thomism |
Final cause is that for the sake of which an agent acts, the end that is first in intention and last in execution, and in Thomism God is the last end of every creature.[1]
That for the sake of which
The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article on cause records the final cause as that principle on account of which the efficient cause moves toward the production of its effect. It is the effect itself formally considered as the term of the intention of the agent. Matter does not acquire form except as moved by an agent, and the agent does not move except by reason of the intention of an end. Without a determined end, the agent would not produce one effect rather than another.[2]
In Summa theologiae I–II, question 1, articles 1 and 2, Aquinas treats the human act as ordered to an end. The end is first in intention and last in execution. It is the cause of causes because the efficient cause acts only for an end, and form is induced for an end. Natural agents act for an end by nature, which is the impression of the first intelligence, as the arrow is directed by the archer. Deliberation is not required for teleology as such.[3]
Cause of causes, not a later decoration
Modern natural science typically isolates certain efficient and material conditions. That is a legitimate abstraction. It becomes an error only when it declares ends unreal. Formal and final causes concern natures and functions, which experiments presuppose whenever they classify kinds and measure what an organ is for. Fides et Ratio warns against a philosophy that refuses these questions in the name of method.[4][5]
Final cause is not a feeling added after the real work of physics. It is the interior reason an agent is this agent rather than another. A power is specified by its object, which is its end. Appetite, whether intellectual, rational, or sensitive, is motion toward a good. The convertibility of being and good makes teleology a property of the real, not a projection of human purpose onto a dead world.
God as last end of creation
Summa theologiae I, question 44, article 4, argues that God is the final cause of all things. Every agent acts for an end, and the end of the first agent is the last end of all. God makes all things for himself, not as needing them, but as communicating his goodness. The Catechism teaches that the world was created for the glory of God, and that creatures are ordered to him. Dei Filius confesses the same free creation for God's goodness.[6][1]
This is not egoism in God. The divine goodness is the only adequate last end. Creatures are perfected by being ordered to it, not by supplying a lack in God. Beatitude is the attainment of that end by intellectual creatures through vision and love. Moral theology, law, and virtue all hang on this ordering. A world without a last end cannot have a natural law or a Gospel of beatitude.[4]
Intention, nature, and freedom
Ends are distinguished as the end of the work and the end of the worker, as objective end and as possession of the end, as proximate and last. An agent acting by intelligence intends the end as known. An agent acting by nature is directed to the end by the author of nature. Ultimately the tendency of natures is resolved into operation by intelligence, because determined operation following on nature is from the first intelligence.
Human freedom does not abolish finality. It is the power to order oneself to the last end or to deflect toward apparent goods. Grace heals and elevates that ordering without replacing the will. Final-cause analysis here is school method in the service of the commandments and the beatitudes. Not every textbook subdivision is defined. The analysis is not to be dropped until human acts have no why.
References
- Back to citation occurrence 1.0 Back to citation occurrence 1.1 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 279–314 — Authoritative doctrine of creation from nothing, divine conservation, providence, secondary causes, and the permission of evil without making God its author.
- Back to citation Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), Cause — Public-domain analysis of the four causes, including efficient, final, and exemplar causality in the scholastic tradition.
- Back to citation Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I–II, question 1, articles 1–2 — Primary treatment of the human act as ordered to an end, and of the end as first in intention and last in execution.
- Back to citation occurrence 4.0 Back to citation occurrence 4.1 First Vatican Council, Dei Filius — Dogmatic constitution on God the Creator, the natural knowability of God, the distinction of the natural and supernatural orders, and the gratuity of revelation.
- Back to citation John Paul II, Fides et Ratio — Encyclical on the harmony of faith and reason, the enduring value of Aquinas, metaphysical realism, and legitimate philosophical plurality within Catholic faith.
- Back to citation Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae I, question 44 — Primary account of God as first efficient cause of being, exemplar of essences, and final cause of every appetite, with creatures as participating existence.