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Causes and explanation

Moving cause

τῆς κινήσεως ἀρχὴν (tēs kinēseōs archēn); αἰτίοις (aitiois); κινεῖται (kineitai)

The phrase is a “source” or “principle of motion”; the related causal forms occur in Aristotle’s assessment of Empedocles.

From the book

Empedocles’ The Testimonia, Volume II

Empedocles of Acragas · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordThe phrase is a “source” or “principle of motion”; the related causal forms occur in Aristotle’s assessment of Empedocles.
  • In this workSimplicius’ A28 differentiates the four bodies from Love and Strife by saying that the latter are what move the former.
  • In this editionThe source’s causal prose is later than the poem.
  • A place to readDefines the two powers through their moving relation to the bodily elements.

Meaning

The phrase is a “source” or “principle of motion”; the related causal forms occur in Aristotle’s assessment of Empedocles. “Efficient cause” is a useful later classificatory label, but the printed phrase itself should be kept distinct from a fully elaborated Aristotelian technical definition.

Use in the book

Simplicius’ A28 differentiates the four bodies from Love and Strife by saying that the latter are what move the former. Aristotle at A37 credits Empedocles with making the moving source different and contrary rather than one. The credit is immediately qualified: Empedocles allegedly fails to use his causes sufficiently or consistently, because each power can seem to perform the other’s operation.

The objection exposes two explanatory levels. Separating different roots gathers like portions together; combining unlike roots requires portions to leave their homogeneous masses. Aristotle treats this as a problem for assigning a univocal task to each cause. The edition argues that the twofold effect may instead be central to the cycle. Neither interpretation should be silently adopted as the witness’s plain report.

A30 offers another kind of causal explanation when the onset of motion is associated with the massing of fire. Such a mechanism need not replace the powers everywhere, but neither should it be supplied with an unprinted account of exactly how Strife operates through fire. The testimonia preserve several explanatory idioms without resolving their coordination.

Places to read

  1. A 28 (testimony)Simplicius, Physics 25,21, from Theophrastus. Defines the two powers through their moving relation to the bodily elements.
  2. A 37 (polemical)Aristotle, Metaphysics A 4, 985a21. Credits the division of the moving source, then charges its use with inconsistency.
  3. A 30 (testimony)Ps.-Plutarch, Stromateis, in Eusebius P.E. I 8,10. Associates the beginning of cosmic motion with an accumulation of fire.

Translation in this edition

The source’s causal prose is later than the poem. “Cause,” “principle,” physical mechanism and divine power should not be flattened into a single modern category of force.