I’m with you on this, Heyzeus7. I too have a difficult time identifying a satisfactory instance of a per se (i.e., essentially ordered) casual series out there in the world. I get the lamp-hanging-from-a-chain illustration, but I have a hard time seeing how metaphysically useful conclusions follow.

However, here are a few things I’m finding helpful.

1. Aquinas’s argument in "De Ente et Essentia" involves (what seems to me as) a sound and relevant demonstration of a casual series per se, one that involves God (Being Itself) as the First Cause in a per se series that imparts existence to creatures. For a great exposition and defense, I highly recommend Gaven Kerr’s new "Aquinas’s Way to God: The Proof in De Ente et Essentia." You can get it on Kindle or hardback. (Perhaps I should be satisfied with this per se series and leave it at that, but do think the per se series must have instances elsewhere. Otherwise, why would St. Thomas have not simply stopped with the De Ente and skipped the First, Second and Third Ways altogether?)


2. Feser’s recent lecture “An Aristotleian Proof of the Existence of God” sheds a fair amount of light on the casual series per se, at least for me. He talks about how a casual series per se is (in a sense) more fundamental than a casual series per accidens, and how the per accidens series actually depends on the per se series. While this lecture does not completely lift the fog for me, it certainly goes a long way in that direction. You can find the lecture at on YouTube. Just search the title.


3. Finally (and here I really hope others in this Classical Theism group can help me out), it seems to me the key may lie elsewhere in Aristotle’s four causes. Specifically, I suspect a true casual series per se involves Formal, and perhaps Final, causality, and not (primarily) Efficient causality. (I’m just not sure about Material causality fits i