efficient cause

plural efficient causes

1. naturalhuman sciencesThe being or event which physically brings about the change or motion that produces another occurrence or thing.

   [H]e turned the corner where for years he had always paused; simply not to pause was an efficient cause for emotion.

   1895, Henry James, chapter 6, in The Altar of the Dead

   3 more examples

   As to its efficient cause, wit owes its production to an extraordinary and peculiar temperament in the constitution of the possessor of it, in which is found a concurrence of regular and exalted ferments, and an affluence of animal spirits, refined and rectified to a great degree of purity.

   1781, Samuel Johnson, quoting Sir Richard Blackmore in Lives of the Poets

   There must be some efficient cause for each slight individual difference, as well as for more strongly marked variations which occasionally arise.

   1859, Charles Darwin, chapter 7, in The Origin of Species

   In the production of a statue of Athena for the Parthenon, the bronze is the material cause; the shape and design of the statue is the formal cause; the sculptor is the efficient cause; the honor of the goddess (and the glory of Athens) is the final cause.

   1998, R. J. Schork, Greek and Hellenic Culture in Joyce, →ISBN, page 176