Efficient Cause   

Efficient Cause

Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
Efficient Cause
1904 [c.] | New Elements (Kaina stoiceia) | EP 2:315; NEM 4:252-3

If the cause […] is a part of the causatum, in the sense that the causatum could not logically be without the cause, it is called an internal cause; otherwise, it is called an external cause. If the cause is of the nature of an individual thing or fact, and the other factor requisite to the necessitation of the causatum is a general principle, I would call the cause a minor, or individuating, or perhaps a physical cause. [—] The individuating external cause is called the efficient, or efficient cause; and the causatum is called the effect.