Terms for a relationship between causes (or principles, norms, classes, etc.) and that which they determine such that the causes qualified as “proximate” are intermediate between the things determined and some supreme cause that is qualified as “ultimate.” E.g., God is the ultimate efficient cause of all effects in the world, whereas creatures are proximate causes of these effects or of those that are not exclusively caused by God. The ultimate/proximate relationship could also be put in terms of primary/secondary. “Remote” is a synonym for “ultimate” in the context of this kind of relationship between causes (or principles, etc.).