Miscellanies 8.9.33
Summary: A sustaining cause keeps its effect in being; a cooperating cause intensifies what another cause produces; a joint cause produces an effect only together with another cause.
Greek text · Stählin 2
Τῶν μὲν οὖν προκαταρκτικῶν αἰρομένων μένει τὸ ἀποτέλεσμα, συνεκτικὸν δέ ἐστιν αἴτιον, οὗ παρόντος μένει τὸ ἀποτέλεσμα καὶ αἰρομένου αἴρεται. τὸ δὲ συνεκτικὸν συνωνύμως καὶ αὐτοτελὲς καλοῦσιν, ἐπειδὴ αὐτάρκως διʼ αὑτοῦ ποιητικόν ἐστι τοῦ ἀποτελέσματος. εἰ δὲ τὸ αὐτοτελὲς αἴτιον αὐτοτελοῦς ἐνεργείας ἐστὶ δηλωτικόν, τὸ συνεργὸν ὑπηρεσίαν σημαίνει καὶ τὴν σὺν ἑτέρῳ λειτουργίαν. εἰ μὲν οὖν μηδὲν παρέχεται, οὐδὲ συνεργὸν λεχθήσεται, εἰ δὲ παρέχεται, τούτου πάντως γίνεται αἴτιον οὗ καὶ παρέχεται, τουτέστιν τοῦ διʼ αὐτοῦ γινομένου. ἔστιν οὖν συνεργὸν οὗ παρόντος ἐγίνετο τὸ ἀποτέλεσμα, προδήλῳ μὲν οὖν παρόντος προδήλου, ἀδήλῳ δὲ ἀδήλου. καὶ τὸ συναίτιον δὲ ἐκ τοῦ γένους ἐστὶ τῶν αἰτίων, καθάπερ ὁ συστρατιώτης στρατιώτης καὶ ὁ συνέφηβος ἔφηβος τὸ μὲν οὖν συνεργὸν αἴτιον τῷ συνεκτικῷ πρὸς τὴν ἐπίτασιν βοηθεῖ τοῦ ὑπʼ αὐτοῦ γινομένου, τὸ δὲ συναίτιον οὐκ ἐπὶ τῆς αὐτῆς ἐστιν ἐννοίας· δύναται γὰρ συναίτιον ὑπάρχειν. κἂν μὴ συνεκτικὸν αἴτιον ᾖ τι. νοεῖται γὰρ σὺν ἑτέρῳ τὸ συναίτιον οὐδʼ αὐτῷ δυναμένῳ κατʼ ἰδίαν ποιῆσαι τὸ ἀποτέλεσμα. αἴτιον ὂν σὺν αἰτίῳ. διαφέρει δὲ τοῦ συναιτίου τὸ συνεργὸν ἐν τῷ τὸ μὲν συναίτιον μεθʼ ἑτέρου κατʼ ἰδίαν μὴ ποιοῦντος τὸ ἀποτέλεσμα παρέχειν, τὸ δὲ συνεργὸν [ἐν τῷ] κατʼ ἰδίαν μὴ ποιεῖν, ἑτέρῳ δὲ προσερχόμενον τῷ κατʼ ἰδίαν ποιοῦντι συνεργεῖν αὐτῷ πρὸς τὸ σφοδρότερον γίνεσθαι τὸ ἀποτέλεσμα. μάλιστα δὲ τὸ ἐκ προκαταρκτικοῦ συνεργὸν γεγονέναι πρὸς τὸ συνεργὸν τὴν τοῦ αἰτίου διατείνειν δύναμιν παρίστησιν.
English · Claude translation
When initiating causes are removed, the effect remains; but a sustaining cause is one whose presence keeps the effect in being and whose removal removes it. They call the sustaining cause, synonymously, self-sufficient, since it is sufficiently productive of the effect by itself. If the self-sufficient cause indicates a self-sufficient activity, the cooperating cause signifies service and ministry together with another. If, then, it provides nothing, it will not even be called cooperating; but if it provides something, it certainly becomes the cause of what it provides, that is, of what comes about through it. The cooperating cause, then, is that in whose presence the effect came about: an evident one with an evident effect, a non-evident one with a non-evident effect. The joint cause too belongs to the genus of causes, as a fellow soldier is a soldier and a fellow ephebe an ephebe. The cooperating cause helps the sustaining cause toward intensifying what comes about by it; but the joint cause does not fall under the same concept, for something can be a joint cause even if it is not a sustaining cause. For the joint cause is understood together with another that also cannot produce the effect by itself, being a cause together with a cause. The cooperating cause differs from the joint cause in this: the joint cause produces the effect together with another that does not produce it by itself, while the cooperating cause does not produce it by itself, but, joining another that does produce it by itself, cooperates with it so that the effect comes about more intensely. Most of all, the fact that what was cooperating came about from an initiating cause shows that the cooperating cause can extend the power of the cause.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- An ephebe was a young man in civic and military training. The last sentence is obscure, and the digital text marks a supplied word in it with an unpaired angle bracket; the translation is tentative. Book 8, and with it the Stromata, breaks off here.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (missing breathing on ἐν; stray bracket from the editor's supplement): συνεργὸν εν τῷ → συνεργὸν ἐν τῷ; συνεργὸν> τὴν → συνεργὸν τὴν.
Cite this passage
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 8.9.33 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/8/9/33/).
Plain text
Clement of Alexandria, Strom. 8.9.33 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/clement-stromata/8/9/33/).
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