Causa efficiens et causa superveniens. The question of causality in Seneca and Roman Stoicism

It seems that Seneca is inclined to interpret the enquiry into causality developed by the Academics in a ‘syncretistic’ manner. Accordingly, he acknowledges the importance of the analytical moment when it is concerned with describing the various aspects that pertain to the realisation of the cause-effect relationship. Seneca proposes a solution which might constitute a new point of departure: one must learn to distinguish between causa efficiens and causae supervenientes. Seneca wishes to assert that what is supervenient is, as such, ‘other’ than the nature of the entity and the synectic cause, Thus, even though the supervenient cause may be conceived by the entity itself (e.g. by the artist), the supervenient cause is in fact external and is not immediately that which is in itself the cause of an effect. This however does not rule out the possibility that occasionally what supervenes may interfere with the synectic cause (which immediately reveals itself as the direct cause of a given effect) and therefore takes on an active status, become an efficient cause and even appears to be the principal cause.