causes. Heidegger provides an example of a SILVER chalice created by a craftsman.He begins with the material CAUSE.The silver is the material from which the chalice is made,therefore, silver is co-responsible for the chalice.
2
He goes on to suggest that the chalice,
"is indebted to, owes thanks to the silver for that of which it consists."
3
Althoughindebted to the silver, the chalice is more than silver, it has a particular
FORM
,that of chaliceness. The silver emerges as a chalice through the form of chaliceness. However,the silver chalice is only what it is because it has a place inside a cultural context andderives its meaning from that context.This is its 'final' cause or telos. Heidegger puts itthis way,
Within the bounds the thing does not stop; rather, from within them it begins to BE what after production it will be.
4
Heidegger then CLAIMS that the efficient cause is that which gathers the material,formal and final causes, allowing the object to come into being. However, andimportantly, the efficient cause is not a craftsman, as Aristotle would have said.Of course, there is a silversmith busy AT WORK, pondering and designing,smelting andhammering, but this is not what Heidegger has in mind when he describes the efficientcause.His interpretation of Aristotle is that the efficient cause is an articulation of theother elements in the causal nexus.In Heidegger's reading, the efficient cause is notgenerated by a SUBJECT with intentions. The silversmith is but one part of the process of releasing the chalice into its chaliceness. The creative activity of the silversmith is over-