Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Four causes" in English language version.
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ignored (help)[...] three principles are central to Aquinas's general metaphysics [...] the principle of finality is in a sense the most fundamental of them, given that the final cause is 'the cause of causes': for, again in Aquinas's' view an efficient cause can bring an effect in to being only if it is 'directed towards' that effect; and it is ultimately in that sense that the effect is 'contained in' the efficient cause.
A match, for example, reliably generates flame and heat when struck, and never (say) frost and cold, or the smell of lilacs, or thunder.
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ignored (help)... for a full range of cases, an explanation which fails to invoke all four causes is no explanation at all.