Albertus Magnus Philosophia (1496 Incunable)

original: "Phia. d. Alberti. M." – Albertus Magnus was a 13th-century Dominican friar and philosopher who reconciled Aristotelian thought with Christian theology.

itself; but Polyclitus original: "polidetus" – referring to the famous Greek sculptor Polyclitus is a cause by accident. For it happens that the one making the statue is Polyclitus. Likewise, something is a cause of another in potentiality, and something in actuality: such as a builder being the cause of a house being built. And note that just as it is in causes, so it is in things caused.

On Form and Chance. Chapter 7.

original: "De forma & casu." The text proceeds to discuss "Fortune" (fortuna) and "Chance" (casus); the word "form" here is likely a scribal error for "fortune."

After these things, we must speak of form likely "fortune" and chance: what they are and what the difference is between them. For many things happen by chance and fortune. What chance and fortune are can be investigated according to Aristotle referring to Book 2 of the Physics from among those things that come to be. Some things come to be "for the sake of this," that is, because they are intended. And some things do not come to be "for the sake of this," that is, because they are not intended; such as someone finding a treasure while digging a grave. For he did not dig the grave for this purpose: to find treasure. Likewise, among those things that come to be for a purpose: some come to be from design original: "proposito" – intentional choice, that is, by the use of free will or reason. Others, however, come to be from nature. Those things come from nature, as Aristotle says in the second book of the Physics, which, being moved continuously by a certain principle within themselves, arrive at some end. Likewise, of those things which are from nature: some happen always, such as the sun moving in an oblique circle original: "circulo obliquo" – the ecliptic, the apparent path of the sun through the constellations. And some happen frequently, such as rain being generated from vapor. Of those things that come to be by design for a purpose, the essential cause original: "causa per se" is the design. And of those things that come to be by nature for a purpose, the essential cause is nature. But of those things that come to be not for that purpose, the incidental cause original: "causa per accidens" is fortune and chance. I say "incidental cause" because fortune and chance happen to essential causes, which is clear thus: someone went to the market to buy meat, and while he was going, he found a treasure by chance; this chance happened to the essential cause, which was the intent to go to the market. Moreover, fortuitous and casual events must occur rarely. For if they happen frequently, they are not called fortuitous or casual; as if it happens frequently to someone going to the market that they take a bath. Fortune, however, differs from chance, because fortune exists only in agents acting according to design, for whom things can happen well or ill. Thus, neither an inanimate object, nor an infant, nor a beast does anything by fortune, because they do not have design; and neither good fortune nor ill fortune is in these things except by way of similarity, just as Plutarch says that stones from which altars are made are "fortunate." But chance exists in those not having design, such as in beasts and inanimate objects; as a horse came to a house by chance and was saved from wolves. For he did not come home for the sake of safety, but to seek food. And a tripod fell and by chance became a seat. For it did not fall for this purpose, to become a seat, but so that it might rest in the middle In the Aristotelian worldview, the center of the Earth was the "middle" or center of the universe, toward which all heavy objects naturally fell., just as every heavy thing tends toward the center. Thus it is clear that all fortune is chance, but the reverse is not true. And note that in those things which come to be for a purpose, whether they come to be by design or by natu...