The causal adequacy principle (CAP), or causal reality principle, is a philosophical claim made by

René Descartes René Descartes ( , ; ; 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and Modern science, science. Mathematics was paramou ...

that the cause of an object must contain at least as much reality as the object itself, whether formally or eminently.

Overview

Descartes defends CAP by quoting Roman philosopher

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( ; ; – October 15, 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem '' De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, which usually is t ...

: "Ex nihilo nihil fit", meaning " Nothing comes from nothing".—Lucretius In his meditations, Descartes uses the CAP to support his trademark argument for the existence of God. Descartes' assertions were disputed by

Thomas Hobbes Thomas Hobbes ( ; 5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher, best known for his 1651 book ''Leviathan (Hobbes book), Leviathan'', in which he expounds an influential formulation of social contract theory. He is considered t ...

in his "Third Set of Objections" published in 1641. René Descartes was ''not'' the founder of this philosophical claim. It is used in the classical metaphysics of

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

and

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

, and features eminently in the works of

Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas ( ; ; – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican Order, Dominican friar and Catholic priest, priest, the foremost Scholasticism, Scholastic thinker, as well as one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the W ...

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*A "cause" is that which brings something into effect. *If an item has the quality X formally, it has it in the literal or strict sense. *If an item has the quality X eminently, it has it in a higher or grander form. To demonstrate this, a person can possess money formally by holding it on their person, or by storing it in a bank account. Similarly, a person can eminently possess money by owning assets that could readily be exchanged for it. Descartes offers two explanations of his own: *Heat cannot be produced in an object which was not previously hot, except by something of at least the same order of perfection as heat. *A stone, for example, which previously did not exist, cannot begin to exist unless it is produced by something which contains, either formally or eminently everything to be found in the stone. Descartes goes on to claim that the CAP not only applies to stones, but also the realm of ideas, and the features that are seen as part of the objective reality of an idea.Jolley, N., ''Causality and Mind: Essays on Early Modern Philosophy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)
pp. 33–35

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