William A. Wallace, Aquinas on the Temporal Relation Between Cause and Effect - Philosophy Online

The Review of Metaphysics Volume 27 Issue 3 / March1974 William A. Wallace Aquinas on the Temporal Relation Between Cause and Effect IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT TO FIND VIEWS more markedly opposed regarding the temporal relation between cause and effect than those propounded respectively by Hume and Aristotle. For Hume, cause and effect must be temporally distinct; in fact, almost by definition the cause is an event anterior in time to the effect, another event. The key problem of causation in Hume’s formulation is thus one of making precise the way in which these two temporally distinct events are connected, and he decides this by opting for psychological projections into reality rather than conceding the existence of necessary connections in nature. Aristotle, on the other hand, accepts the fact of productivity or causal efficacy in nature, and so defines cause as to have it actually causing only when it is producing an effect, and thus at best instantiated when cause and effect are simultaneous. While not rejecting the possibility of antecedent causation, in the sense of denying outright that the cause might somehow temporally precede the effect, Aristotle treats this possibility as troublesome and as contributing little or nothing toward the understanding of basic causal processes.1 Contemporary thinkers who address the problem of causal relations generally favor Hume’s analysis, although some periodically manifest interest in Aristotle’s exposition as an important and viable alternative. Few, however, find among the many philosophers who came between Aristotle and Hume any worthwhile contributor to the development of this problematic. Some might note, for example, Nicholas of Autrecourt as a medieval precursor of Hume, but this merely keeps the discussion fluctuating between the same two poles. This essay aims to call attention to a