ABSTRACT
A metaphysics of natural contingency investigates how natural causality works for Aquinas, providing a new and fresh assessment of his account of the classical four causes of the natural world: material, formal, efficient, and final. This analysis will show that the essential notion in the definition of cause is that of dependence. This definition allows Aquinas to speak of contingent causes (which can be scientifically described in indeterministic or random terms). I suggest, then, understanding divine providence using this broader notion of causality as that upon which something depends. Both this and the following chapter will offer a synthesis of Aquinas’ considerations on these matters, which are not found all together in his works, but rather scattered throughout.
