first cause
Chain's starting point
First cause is the original source from which everything else derives—the unmoved mover, the uncaused cause.
The term belongs primarily to philosophy and theology, where it names whatever initiated the chain of causation that produced the universe: Aquinas argued that God is the first cause of all existence.
The concept addresses an infinite regress problem: if every effect has a cause, what started the sequence?
Self-sufficient first cause
- AristotleGreek founder of formal logic
- AquinasScholastic philosopher-theologian surname
- teleologyStudy of purpose in nature
- metaphysicsPhilosophy of existence's nature
prime mover · contingency · necessity · theism · deism · Leibniz · Spinoza · ontology
Point of origin
- beginningInitial stage of something
- rootUnderground absorbing structure
- foundationUnderlying support structure
- genesisPoint of creation
uncaused · self-caused · fundamental · primordial · original · starting point · wellspring
One who produces something
- GodSupreme spiritual authority
- genesisPoint of creation
- creationMaking something exist
- logosBrand identification symbols
eternal · omnipotent · providence · intelligent design · creationism · emanation · ex nihilo · will
Loud explosive noise
- singularityPoint where values explode
- inflationSustained price level increase
- universeComplete system or domain
- space-timeFused dimensional framework
cosmogony · initial conditions · quantum fluctuation · primordial · expansion · multiverse · beginning of time
unmoved mover
Self-sufficient first cause
- AristotleGreek founder of formal logic
- AquinasScholastic philosopher-theologian surname
- teleologyStudy of purpose in nature
metaphysics · prime mover · contingency · necessity · theism · deism · Leibniz · Spinoza · ontology · sufficient reason
source
Point of origin
- beginningInitial stage of something
- rootUnderground absorbing structure
- foundationUnderlying support structure
genesis · uncaused · self-caused · fundamental · primordial · original · starting point · wellspring
creator
One who produces something
logos · eternal · omnipotent · providence · intelligent design · creationism · emanation · ex nihilo · will · demiurge
big bang
Loud explosive noise
- singularityPoint where values explode
- inflationSustained price level increase
- universeComplete system or domain
space-time · cosmogony · initial conditions · quantum fluctuation · primordial · expansion · multiverse · beginning of time
- chicken-or-egg problems
- originsbeginning, birth, creation, source, roots
- metaphysicsessence, being, reality, existence, substance theory
- paradoxescatch-22, Zeno's paradox, Zeno's paradoxes, bootstrap paradox, self-contradiction
- root causessource, origin, reason, basis, genesis
- Aristotelian metaphysicsprime mover, unmoved mover, actuality, potentiality, forms
first causefinal outcome
Conclusive resolution achieved
end result · effect · outcome · resultant · result