"efficient cause" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "efficient causes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "efficient cause (plural efficient causes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Philosophy",
          "orig": "en:Philosophy",
          "parents": [
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1781, Samuel Johnson, quoting Sir Richard Blackmore in Lives of the Poets",
          "text": "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."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1859, Charles Darwin, chapter 7, in The Origin of Species",
          "text": "There must be some efficient cause for each slight individual difference, as well as for more strongly marked variations which occasionally arise.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1895, Henry James, chapter 6, in The Altar of the Dead",
          "text": "[H]e turned the corner where for years he had always paused; simply not to pause was an efficient cause for emotion.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998, R. J. Schork, Greek and Hellenic Culture in Joyce, page 176",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The being or event which physically brings about the change or motion that produces another occurrence or thing."
      ],
      "id": "en-efficient_cause-en-noun-9anJlfNZ",
      "links": [
        [
          "philosophy",
          "philosophy"
        ],
        [
          "natural science",
          "natural science"
        ],
        [
          "being",
          "being"
        ],
        [
          "event",
          "event"
        ],
        [
          "physical",
          "physical"
        ],
        [
          "brings about",
          "bring about"
        ],
        [
          "change",
          "change"
        ],
        [
          "motion",
          "motion"
        ],
        [
          "occurrence",
          "occurrence"
        ],
        [
          "thing",
          "thing"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(philosophy, natural science) The being or event which physically brings about the change or motion that produces another occurrence or thing."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "natural"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "philosophy",
        "science",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "efficient cause"
}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "efficient causes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "efficient cause (plural efficient causes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "en:Philosophy"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1781, Samuel Johnson, quoting Sir Richard Blackmore in Lives of the Poets",
          "text": "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."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1859, Charles Darwin, chapter 7, in The Origin of Species",
          "text": "There must be some efficient cause for each slight individual difference, as well as for more strongly marked variations which occasionally arise.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1895, Henry James, chapter 6, in The Altar of the Dead",
          "text": "[H]e turned the corner where for years he had always paused; simply not to pause was an efficient cause for emotion.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998, R. J. Schork, Greek and Hellenic Culture in Joyce, page 176",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The being or event which physically brings about the change or motion that produces another occurrence or thing."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "philosophy",
          "philosophy"
        ],
        [
          "natural science",
          "natural science"
        ],
        [
          "being",
          "being"
        ],
        [
          "event",
          "event"
        ],
        [
          "physical",
          "physical"
        ],
        [
          "brings about",
          "bring about"
        ],
        [
          "change",
          "change"
        ],
        [
          "motion",
          "motion"
        ],
        [
          "occurrence",
          "occurrence"
        ],
        [
          "thing",
          "thing"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(philosophy, natural science) The being or event which physically brings about the change or motion that produces another occurrence or thing."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "natural"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "philosophy",
        "science",
        "sciences"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "efficient cause"
}