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Final cause   /fˈaɪnəl kɑz/   Listen
noun
Cause  n.  
1.
That which produces or effects a result; that from which anything proceeds, and without which it would not exist. "Cause is substance exerting its power into act, to make one thing begin to be."
2.
That which is the occasion of an action or state; ground; reason; motive; as, cause for rejoicing.
3.
Sake; interest; advantage. (Obs.) "I did it not for his cause."
4.
(Law) A suit or action in court; any legal process by which a party endeavors to obtain his claim, or what he regards as his right; case; ground of action.
5.
Any subject of discussion or debate; matter; question; affair in general. "What counsel give you in this weighty cause!"
6.
The side of a question, which is espoused, advocated, and upheld by a person or party; a principle which is advocated; that which a person or party seeks to attain. "God befriend us, as our cause is just." "The part they take against me is from zeal to the cause."
Efficient cause, the agent or force that produces a change or result.
Final cause, the end, design, or object, for which anything is done.
Formal cause, the elements of a conception which make the conception or the thing conceived to be what it is; or the idea viewed as a formative principle and cooperating with the matter.
Material cause, that of which anything is made.
Proximate cause. See under Proximate.
To make common cause with, to join with in purposes and aims.
Synonyms: Origin; source; mainspring; motive; reason; incitement; inducement; purpose; object; suit; action.



adjective
Final  adj.  
1.
Pertaining to the end or conclusion; last; terminating; ultimate; as, the final day of a school term. "Yet despair not of his final pardon."
2.
Conclusive; decisive; as, a final judgment; the battle of Waterloo brought the contest to a final issue.
3.
Respecting an end or object to be gained; respecting the purpose or ultimate end in view.
Final cause. See under Cause.
Synonyms: Final, Conclusive, Ultimate. Final is now appropriated to that which brings with it an end; as, a final adjustment; the final judgment, etc. Conclusive implies the closing of all discussion, negotiation, etc.; as, a conclusive argument or fact; a conclusive arrangement. In using ultimate, we have always reference to something earlier or proceeding; as when we say, a temporary reverse may lead to an ultimate triumph. The statements which a man finally makes at the close of a negotiation are usually conclusive as to his ultimate intentions and designs.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Final cause" Quotes from Famous Books



... outfitters in London, with his new Rolls-Royce car and his new chauffeur Briggins (parenthetically it may be remarked that a seven-hour excursion in this vehicle, youth in the back seat and Briggins at the helm, all ordained by Peggy, had been the final cause of the evening's explanations), with the starry heavens above, with the well-ordered earth beneath them, and with all human beings on the earth, including Germans, Turks, Infidels, and Hereticks—all save one: and that, as he learned ...
— The Rough Road • William John Locke

... similar to themselves the natures which they have generated, are the paradigms, or exemplars of all things. But as these divine causes act for their own sake, and on account of their own goodness, do they not exhibit the final cause? Since therefore intelligible forms are of this kind, and are the leaders of so much good to wholes, they give completion to the divine orders, though they largely subsist about the intelligible order contained in the artificer of the universe. But dianoetic forms or ...
— Introduction to the Philosophy and Writings of Plato • Thomas Taylor

... instrument. Herschel's great mirrors—the first examples of the giant telescopes of modern times—were then primarily engines for extending the bounds of the visible universe; and from the sublimity of this "final cause" was derived the vivid enthusiasm which animated his efforts ...
— A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century - Fourth Edition • Agnes M. (Agnes Mary) Clerke

... or legislature; there can be no legitimate privilege, where there already exists a positive law adequate to the purpose; and when there is no law in existence, the privilege is to be justified by its accordance with the end, or final cause, of all law. Unusual and new- coined words are doubtless an evil; but vagueness, confusion, and imperfect conveyance of our thoughts, are a far greater. Every system, which is under the necessity of using terms not familiarized by the metaphysics in fashion, will be described ...
— Biographia Literaria • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... distinguishing itself from tragedy, but not as the genuine old comedy, contrasting with, and opposing it. Tragedy, indeed, carried the thoughts into the mythologic world, in order to raise the emotions, the fears, and the hopes, which convince the inmost heart that their final cause is not to be discovered in the limits of mere mortal life, and force us into a presentiment, however dim, of a state in which those struggles of inward free will with outward necessity, which form the true subject of the tragedian, ...
— Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Beaumont and Fletcher • S. T. Coleridge

... sole and final cause of social life. Without psychic nature there could be no association. Personalized psychic nature is the sole and final cause of human social life. Numberless conditions determine by stimulation or imitation the manifestation of psychic ...
— Evolution Of The Japanese, Social And Psychic • Sidney L. Gulick



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