Will and Efficient Causality

Efficient Causality is typically formulated as a relation between two events, with the nature of that relation the main focus of a philosophical interest that is typically motivated by the application of the relation to means-end purposefulness. However, Spinoza's use of the term 'modification', and Kant's of 'alternation', suggest that an 'effect' entails a transition from a prior condition to a subsequent one. Hence, the standard interpretation of the Effect of an Efficient Cause abstracts an atomic event from what is, more fundamentally, a variation of conditions. But, in Formaterialism, it is Material Causality that effects variation. Thus, Efficient Causality is a special case of Material Causality. Similarly, the fundamental efficacy of Will, the Material Principle of personal experience, consists not in the purposive production of some discrete event, but in the diversification of one's situation.