Causes

Causes, or causality, is the relationship between one event and another. It may also refer to:

Causes (company)

Causes.com is an online campaigning platform. Causes platform enables people who support a common social cause and to take action together. Causes is primarily used for grassroots campaigns, and to organize awareness campaigns. In June 2014 it was announced that Brigade Media acquired a controlling stake of the company behind causes.com, Philotic, Inc.

Mission

Causes' stated mission is "to empower people to create change in the world through online organizing. Causes connects people who share a common vision and build the tools they need to make an impact.

Any user can create a campaign on Causes, whether they work for a nonprofit or are an activist, interested in a certain issue. Nonprofits with smaller resources or extensive grassroots networks have been leveraging those resources to build online communities of supporters. Users can publicize their activity to their personal network and use social pressure to engage friends and get more people involved.

Causes is a for-profit business. Investors include Sean Parker, Founders Fund, the Case Foundation and NEA.

Four causes

"Four causes" refers to an influential principle in Aristotelian thought whereby explanations of change or movement are classified into four fundamental types of answer to the question "why?" Aristotle wrote that "we do not have knowledge of a thing until we have grasped its why, that is to say, its explanation." While there are cases where classifying an explanation is difficult, or in which classes of explanation might merge, Aristotle was convinced that his four classes of explanation provided an analytical scheme of general applicability.

Aitia, from Greek αἰτία was the word that Aristotle used to refer to the concept of explanation. Traditionally in academic philosophy it has been translated as cause, but this tradition uses the word 'cause' in a peculiar way that is obsolete, or highly specialized and technical in philosophy, not in its most usual current ordinary language usage. The translation of Aristotle's αἰτία that is nearest to current ordinary language is 'explanation'.