Source: [The Four Causes](http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/4causes.htm) by Univ. of Washington Prof [S. Marc Cohen](http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/currvit.htm) PhD in Philosophy (Cornell).

I [Import](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loanword#Linguistic_classification) from Ancient Greek aition (plural aitia), to avoid 
the polysemous noun 'cause'. 

> 
> The picture is Aristotle’s, but the names of the causes are not.  
> 
>  Quotations from Physics *II.3*, 194b24 ff: 
> 
> 
> 1. **Material cause:** “that from which, present in it, a thing comes to be … e.g., the bronze and silver, and their genera, are causes of the statue and the bowl.”  
> 
>  2. **Formal cause:** “the form, i.e., the pattern … the form is the account of the essence … and the parts of the account.” 
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> 
> 

Please aid me to distinguish 1 and 2. The following examples fail, because their attempted distinctions can be eliminated by my rewriting them below to exemplify the other aition.

> 
> Aristotle’s point may be put this way: if we ask “what **makes** something so-and-so?” we can give four very different sorts of answer - each appropriate to a different sense of “**makes**.” Consider the following sentences:
>  ... 
> 
> 
> ✓ 1b. [Material Aition:] Wood is what the table is **made out of**. 
> 
> 
> 

✘ 1c. [Now Formal:] four legs and a flat top are what the table is **made out of** 

> 
> ✓ 2b. [Formal Aition:] Having four legs and a flat top is **what it is to be** a table. 
> 
> 
> 

✘ 1c. [Now Material:] Four legs and a flat top are what the table is **made out of**