Factors Involved in Harming and Explicating the Criteria to Distinguish Them

Factors involved in emerging a harmful result are restricted to three types as follows: cause, means, and condition; factors involved in liability, however, are restricted only to 'cause' and 'means'. Since there is no distinguishing standard and because these concepts have many similarities, there are many difficulties in distinguishing them from each other. To distinguishing these concepts from each other, and taking into account the consequences of involving of each of the above-mentioned factors, the impact and true nature of each of them are taken as the main standards to distinguish it; and, the other [minor] standards such asforcibility are introduced as a preliminary step to impact and 'the causation relation' as the channel of impact. Thus, cause is the efficient factor whose forcibility is typically present and has, by its essence, direct impact in harming; and, therefore, there is a causation relation between it and the harmful result. Means is an efficient factor the result has been realized not directly from its presence but from its impact and its forcibility is potentially present and may be relatively actualized depending on the situation. As a channel for penetration of impact, the causation relation is established when impact of means in harming is actualized. Also, condition is an inefficient factor which has no impact in harming directly or indirectly and its forcibility is not present typically or relatively. Thus, it never has an impact in realization of the result. And, since it has no impact, it is not able to establish the causation relation as the channel of impact.