ABSTRACT
Aristotle was the first who made a definite attempt to set forth the different ways in which causation may be conceived. The most obvious meaning of Attractive and Repulsive Force expressions is that in which they are applied to human choice. Descartes sought to give more definiteness to the conception of efficient causation. According to Berkeley, the only case in which we find any direct evidence of efficiency, and the only case in which we are really entitled to assume it. Reflection on the unsatisfactoriness of these theories led Hume to deny that the element of efficiency could ever be discovered in any case of apparent causation. Kant criticized Hume's view in a highly elaborate way, the exact point of which is largely dependent on special peculiarities of his philosophy, which we cannot at present discuss. Qualities that are different may be connected by quantitative relations in the conditions of their origin.
