causalité

Forms

causalité f (plural causalités)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin causālitās, a philosophical term recorded once in the 4th century for the Son's relation to the Father as cause, and used in Medieval Latin by Albert the Great for the power to produce an effect and for the causal relation.^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg and the GLLF call it a learned derivative of Latin causālis, itself from causa (“cause”),^[4][5] and the Grand Robert and the Petit Robert derive it from causal.^[6][7] Its use in Kantian philosophy translates German Causalität, used by Kant in 1787.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Raoul de Presles uses it in 1375, in his commentary to a translation of Augustine's City of God, for the search for the first cause.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In 15th-century religious texts it meant the relation of cause and effect and the power to produce an effect.^[8] An isolated use of 1527 speaks of la causalité du ciel, the action of the heavens.^[2][3] Bloch and Wartburg and the GLLF date the word only from 1488, in the Mer des histoires.^[4][5]

The word spread in the 18th century: the Dictionnaire de Trévoux (1752) defined it as the way a cause acts and distinguished moral from physical causality.^[2][3] From 1801 it rendered Kant's category, the principe de causalité being his “second analogy of experience”.^[2][3] Littré also records it for one of the reflective faculties in Gall's phrenology.^[9]

Timeline

• 1375 – Raoul de Presles uses it for the search for the first cause.^[2][3]
• c. 1428–1432 – Pignon uses it for the power each cause receives from God.^[8]
• 1488 – Recorded in the Mer des histoires.^[4][5]
• 1527 – Jean Dassy uses it for the action of a cause.^[2]
• 1752 – The Dictionnaire de Trévoux distinguishes moral and physical causality.^[2][3]
• 1787 – Kant uses the German Causalität.^[2]
• 1801 – Charles de Villers introduces Kant's principle of causality in French.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. causality, the relation between a cause and its effect: lien de causalité, rapport de causalité.^[7][2]
2. Principe de causalité, loi de causalité: the principle that every phenomenon has a cause.^[7][5]
3. (philosophy) One of Kant's categories, under relation.^[5][9]

Related words

• causal
• cause
• Late Latin causālitās

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
5. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b c Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b Dictionnaire du Moyen Français, version 2015 (DMF 2015), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/dmf
9. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette