Cause-and-effect Reasoning

Aristotle's analysis:

Material cause - human physiology
Formal cause - social meaning of an action
Final cause - meaning to the agent
Efficient cause - agent's decision

A young man who lacks certain skills (material cause) and for whom few or no opportunities exist in the job market (formal cause) may turn to a life of crime because he is too proud to go back to school (final cause).  We could explain the criminal behavior by reference to either the material cause, the formal cause, or the final cause.  Yet if the agent's decision (efficient cause) in his choice of personal meaning (the "pride" that serves as the final cause) is one for which he is responsible, then he is responsible regardless of the presence of material and formal causes.  If someone argues that the agent's choice of personal meaning is totally the result of (external forces), then it would make no sense to hold him responsible.

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