Francisco Suarez on Efficient Causation

This dissertation has two main goals: To provide a thoroughgoing evaluation of Francisco Suarez's account of efficient causation and related concepts as put forward in his Metaphysical Disputations (especially in Disputations 12, 17, 18, 47, 48, and 49); and to explore interesting intersections between his thought and contemporary views as to the metaphysics of causation. Chapter 1 has to do with Suarez's account of principium. I show how that notion is connected to the contemporary idea of an ordering. I unpack his two criteria such that X is a principium of Y, namely, "priority" and "connection." I lay out the taxonomy of principia which he develops, giving detailed consideration to each kind of principium. In Chapter 2 I consider Suarez's claim that causation consists in the "flux" or "communication" of esse (being) from cause to effect. I treat of his teachings on change, on the causal relata, and on the causal relation. Chapter 3 has to do with his views on "causation itself' or "causality," which is just the flux of esse from cause to effect. I show how causality is connected to the Aristotelian categories of Action and Passion. Integral to these matters are the concepts of a mode and of a so-called transcendental relation; so consideration of these ideas is central. Chapter 4 has to do with various kinds of efficient causes that Suarez identifies: causes of esse versus causes of being-made; per se versus per accidens causes; principal versus instrumental causes; univocal versus equivocal causes; transeunt versus immanent actions; immediate versus mediate causes; proximate versus remote ones; and others. Finally, in Chapter 5 I bring Suarez into dialogue with contemporary views. I consider the following themes: Suarezian primitivism vis-a-vis causation; the contrast between a Suarezian world and a Humean one; the alleged necessity of the Suarezian causal relation; how Paul Humphreys' idea of "causal contribution" might be useful in understanding Suarez; how Suarez's account compares with several contemporary theories interestingly similar to it; and how the Suarezian causal relata can be understood in terms of the standard idiom of events.