Aristotle's four causes

Aristotle’s four causes are:

The material cause is the substance of the thing. What it is made from. For a table this would be the wood and screws.

The formal cause is the thingness of the thing. What is a table? What properties make it a table and not a chair? For example, a table has legs and a flat surface. The formal cause is what makes a final cause possible (its Affordance).

The efficient cause is what brought it into being—what made it and how. For a table this would be a carpenter and tools.

The final cause is the telos—or end of the thing. A table is for putting things on, eating on, and gathering around.