Authors/Ockham/Summa Logicae/Book III-2/Chapter 15

Latin	English
CAP. 15. QUOMODO PRINCIPIA DICUNTUR ESSE CAUSAE CONCLUSIONIS ?	Chapter 15. How principles are said to be the cause of the conclusion
Non solum autem principia sunt priora conclusionibus, sed etiam sunt causae conclusionum.	Not only are principles prior to conclusions, but they are also the causes of conclusions.
Quod multipliciter intelligi potest. Uno modo quod notitia principiorum efficiat notitiam conclusionis; quod verum est de quibuscumque principiis respectu conclusionis in habente demonstrationem facientem scire, quia semper notitia principiorum in tali facit notitiam conclusionum.	That can be understood in many ways. In one way, that the knowledge of the principles makes the knowledge of the conclusion; which is true of any principles with respect to the conclusion in the one making the demonstration, because the knowledge of the principles in such a person always produces the knowledge of the conclusions.
Alio modo potest intelligi quod ideo principia dicuntur causae conclusionis quia principia exprimunt causam propter quam sic est a parte rei sicut denotatur per conclusionem. Verbi gratia istae propositiones ‘quando terra interponitur inter lunam et ƿ solem, luna eclipsatur’, ‘quando luna est in tali situ, tunc terra interponitur inter lunam et solem’ exprimunt causam quare luna eclipsatur, et ideo istae praemissae dicuntur causae conclusionis illius.	In another way it can be understood that for this reason principles are called the causes of a conclusion because the principles express the reason for which it is so on the part of the thing as it is denoted by the conclusion. For example, these propositions 'when the earth is interposed between the moon and the sun, the moon is eclipsed', 'when the moon is in such a position, then the earth is interposed between the moon and the sun' express the reason why the moon is eclipsed, and therefore these premises are called the causes of that conclusion.
Aliter potest dici principium causa conclusionis, quia consequentia naturali infert conclusionem et non e converso. Aliter possunt dici causae conclusionum, quia conclusio componitur praecise ex terminis positis in principiis, non sic autem principia praecise componuntur ex terminis positis in conclusione.	In another way, the principle can be said to be the cause of the conclusion, because the natural consequence leads to the conclusion and not the other way around. The causes of conclusions can be said in another way, because the conclusion is composed precisely from the terms placed in the principles, but not so the principles are precisely composed from the terms placed in the conclusion.
Propter quod dicit quandoque Aristoteles quod praemissae sunt causae materiales conclusionis et non e converso.	For this reason Aristotle sometimes says that the material causes of the conclusion are presupposed and not the other way around.
Oportet autem scire quod quamvis principia sint causae conclusionis primo modo intelligendo, tamen potest contingere e converso, quod conclusio sit causa principii, quia potest contingere quod aliquis ex notitia conclusionis deveniat in notitiam principii, sicut inferius ostendetur.	Now it is necessary to know that although principles are the cause of the conclusion in the first way of understanding, it can happen on the contrary that the conclusion is the cause of the principle, because it can happen that someone from the knowledge of the conclusion arrives at the knowledge of the principle, as will be shown below.