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Final cause   /fˈaɪnəl kɑz/   Listen
noun
Cause  n.  
1.
That which produces or effects a result; that from which anything proceeds, and without which it would not exist. "Cause is substance exerting its power into act, to make one thing begin to be."
2.
That which is the occasion of an action or state; ground; reason; motive; as, cause for rejoicing.
3.
Sake; interest; advantage. (Obs.) "I did it not for his cause."
4.
(Law) A suit or action in court; any legal process by which a party endeavors to obtain his claim, or what he regards as his right; case; ground of action.
5.
Any subject of discussion or debate; matter; question; affair in general. "What counsel give you in this weighty cause!"
6.
The side of a question, which is espoused, advocated, and upheld by a person or party; a principle which is advocated; that which a person or party seeks to attain. "God befriend us, as our cause is just." "The part they take against me is from zeal to the cause."
Efficient cause, the agent or force that produces a change or result.
Final cause, the end, design, or object, for which anything is done.
Formal cause, the elements of a conception which make the conception or the thing conceived to be what it is; or the idea viewed as a formative principle and cooperating with the matter.
Material cause, that of which anything is made.
Proximate cause. See under Proximate.
To make common cause with, to join with in purposes and aims.
Synonyms: Origin; source; mainspring; motive; reason; incitement; inducement; purpose; object; suit; action.


adjective
Final  adj.  
1.
Pertaining to the end or conclusion; last; terminating; ultimate; as, the final day of a school term. "Yet despair not of his final pardon."
2.
Conclusive; decisive; as, a final judgment; the battle of Waterloo brought the contest to a final issue.
3.
Respecting an end or object to be gained; respecting the purpose or ultimate end in view.
Final cause. See under Cause.
Synonyms: Final, Conclusive, Ultimate. Final is now appropriated to that which brings with it an end; as, a final adjustment; the final judgment, etc. Conclusive implies the closing of all discussion, negotiation, etc.; as, a conclusive argument or fact; a conclusive arrangement. In using ultimate, we have always reference to something earlier or proceeding; as when we say, a temporary reverse may lead to an ultimate triumph. The statements which a man finally makes at the close of a negotiation are usually conclusive as to his ultimate intentions and designs.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Final cause" Quotes from Famous Books



... to us there is a strongly-marked distinction between a first cause and a final cause. And we should commonly identify a first cause with God, and the final cause with the world, which is His work. But Plato, though not a Pantheist, and very far from confounding God with the world, tends to identify the ...
— Philebus • Plato
... constitutes not merely a physical but a moral order. He would not deny that the Universe means something; that the series of events tends towards an end, an end which is also a good; that it has a purpose and a final cause. And yet this purpose exists in no mind whatever, and is due to no will whatever—except to the very small extent to which the processes of physical nature can be consciously directed to an end by the volitions ...
— Philosophy and Religion - Six Lectures Delivered at Cambridge • Hastings Rashdall
... essential character, independently of all his works of creation and redemption. His "worthiness" of worship is inherent in himself, but outwardly manifested to intelligent creatures by the work of creation, of which he is the first Cause and the last End,—the efficient and final Cause. This doctrine, understood by the intellect and unbraced in the heart, would greatly tend to "hide pride from man." (Job xxxiii. 17.) Aside from the doctrine of the "cross," which is still counted "foolishness" by our modern self-styled "philosophers, psychologists and freethinkers;" there ...
— Notes On The Apocalypse • David Steele
... the universe, and to rise by a continuous process from the monad to man. Now, I ask Mr. Darwin himself, what interest has he in maintaining that natural selection is not guided—not directed? What interest has he in substituting accidental causes for every final cause? I cannot see. Let him admit that in natural, as well as in artificial selection, there may be a choice and direction; his principle immediately becomes much more fruitful than it was before. His hypothesis, then, whilst having the advantage of exempting science from the necessity of introducing ...
— What is Darwinism? • Charles Hodge
... person, and especially took great care of his hands by frequent ablutions. In his dress also he was as cleanly as the liberal use of snuff would permit, though the clothes-brush was often in requisition to remove the wasted snuff. "Snuff," he would facetiously say, "was the final cause of the nose, though troublesome and expensive in ...
— The Life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - 1838 • James Gillman


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