Perception of the Future and the Future of Perception - Understanding Understanding: Essays on Cybernetics and Cognition - page 205

FIGURE 3. The same 36 words of Figs. 1 and 2 classified by children in the third and
fourth grade. Note the emergence of meaningful cognitive units, while syntactic
categories are almost completely ignored.
it the growing up of an individual, or a society in transition. In fact, this was
already known by Aristotle who distinguished two kinds of cause, one the
“efficient cause,” the other the “final cause,” which provide us with two dis-
tinct explanatory frameworks for either inanimate matter, or else living
organisms, the distinction being that the efficient cause precedes its effect
while the final cause succeeds its effect. When striking with a match the
treated surface of a matchbook, the striking is the (efficient) cause for the
match to ignite. However, the cause for my striking the match is my wish
to have it ignited (final cause).
Perhaps, with this distinction, my introductory remarks may appear much
clearer. Of course, I had in mind the final cause when I said that if we can