Primary and Secondary Causality in Medieval Philosophy

This book focuses on an eminent issue of medieval theories of causality: the relation between primary causes and secondary causes. It is the first book-length study of the origins and long-term reception of primary and secondary causality.

This book focuses on an eminent issue of medieval theories of causality: the relation between primary causes and secondary causes. It is the first book-length study of the origins and long-term reception of primary and secondary causality. Medieval thinkers, mainly those writing in Arabic and Latin, developed highly original and influential theories of causality. Among these, the theory of primary and secondary causality is particularly important because it concerns a central metaphysical topic: the relation between prior and posterior causes within causal chains. Medieval thinkers inherited this theory from Neoplatonic sources and tried to integrate it into Aristotle’s account of the four causes. This fruitful encounter between Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism resulted in highly ingenious theories in a wide variety of contexts: mediated vs. immediate creation, fate and providence, occasionalism vs. collaboration between primary and secondary causes, the unicity vs. plurality of substantial forms, essential vs. incidental causal chains, and many others. This volume explores how medieval thinkers related these two conceptual traditions with extraordinary theoretical ingenuity. Primary and Secondary Causality in Medieval Philosophy is an essential resource for scholars and graduate students interested in medieval philosophy, metaphysics, natural philosophy, and medieval theology.