efficient cause

in the doctrine of the four causes stated by Aristotle, the agent that initiates a causal process by bringing together the material cause (matter), the formal cause (form), and the final cause (purpose) of a particular effect. One of Aristotle’s examples of an efficient cause was a skilled craftsman who creates an artifact; another was a father who begets a child. More generally, the term is used to mean that which produces a given effect by a causal process.

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Psychology term of the day

December 24th 2024

gender

1. the condition of being male, female, or neuter. In a human context, the distinction between gender and sex reflects the usage of these terms: Sex usually refers to the biological aspects of maleness or femaleness, whereas gender implies the psychological, behavioral, social, and cultural aspects of being male or female (i.e., masculinity or femininity).

2. in linguistics, a grammatical category in inflected languages that governs the agreement between nouns and pronouns and adjectives.