At the age of 17, Aristotle entered Plato’s academy and as he was an excellent student eventually became a teacher. He remained at the Academy until Plato’s death a few decades later. Unlike Plato, Aristotle had an interest in the ‘natural processes’, the way things grew, developed, and his keenness in the natural world led to developments in scientific terminology.

Aristotle thought that things that are in the human soul were reflections of natural objects, so nature was the real world. His notion of causes included the ‘material cause’ — such as the clouds being made of water — the water is the material cause of clouds otherwise they would not exist. The ‘efficient cause’ being the cooling of moisture; the ‘formal cause’ is the falling of moisture to the earth, the creation of rainfall. 

The ‘final cause’ was the purpose or reason for the rain, the sustenance of plants and animals who benefited from the rain. This notion of cycles and classification of the natural world were beneficial ideas to early scientific theory and while we have moved beyond expectation of a ‘final cause’ or purpose to things, the theory of causes demonstrates an interest in scientific problems by philosophers that continues today.

Further Resources:

Simply Philosophy on the Four Causes

Lecture on the Four Causes