As is well known, the notion and the ideal of episteme defined by Aristotle in his Posterior Analytics deeply influenced western intellectual tradition. Causal knowledge became the cornerstone for the development of natural philosophy and the study of nature, but its influence extended much farther. It has been noted, however, that the causal requirement could become, in certain cases, an excessive requirement. In this presentation I will look at early modern Problemata literature from his point of view. I will argue that by legitimizing an approach that left open the issue of causation, the Problemata genre was to a great extent a way of escaping the stringencies of the aristotelian requirement. I will also argue that astrology -- or at least some forms of it -- provided also such a path, that is, it attempted to offer a causal (narrative) explanation to phenomena whose "natural" causes could not be easily identified.