Part II: Man the Maker, continued

Regarding any human production, the first question must be: “what is it going to be made of?” You need materials to make anything and, to a certain extent, these materials define the product. The next question is “who made it?” Someone has to effect the creation of the product, or it would not be produced. Next, you ask “what is it that is being made?” If something is produced, it must have a form. Finally, all there is left to ask is: “why is it being made?”

The answers to all of these questions, taken together, cause a product to come into being, so they are called the four causes. Each is necessary, but not sufficient by itself. “WAIT!” you might say – not everything is made with a conscious purpose! Some things just are. Well, with human productions, we can generally come up with some satisfactory answer, even if it’s just “fiddling around” or “throwing crap at a wall to see what sticks.” Nature is a more enigmatic creator. Let’s take a look at those causes again to see what we can learn of “why” from the other three:

1. Material cause: that out of which something is made.
2. Efficient cause: that by which something is made.
3. Formal cause: that into which something is made.
4. Final cause: that for the sake of which something is made.

If you have a green chair in your room and you paint it red, all four causes are present: material (the green chair), efficient (you), formal (the red chair), and final (a more aesthetically pleasing bedroom, perhaps). What about the green tomato ripened into red? It has causes, as well: material (the green tomato), efficient (energy from the sun), formal (the red tomato)… but what about the final cause? The sun wasn’t going out of its way to ripen that tomato. It had no conscious motivation. In truth, the redness of the tomato is a purpose unto itself.

What do all of these causes tell us about Aristotle’s fourth kind of change: coming to be or passing away? Well, consider the red tomato: when you eat it, it nourishes you and the matter that made up the tomato now makes up you. Is the tomato now a person? Are you now a tomato? Of course not, but some kind of fundamental change has taken place in the matter itself: tomato matter has become human matter.

But what IS “tomato matter?” What is “human matter,” for that matter? (heh) Most importantly: what is “matter itself?” The answers to these questions cut to the heart of what it means for man to be a maker.