Timeline for If we imagine a world that functions without causality, how absurd could it be?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Aug 6, 2018 at 14:56 | comment | added | Yechiam Weiss | @GeoffreyThomas right! It completely slipped my mind. | |
| Aug 6, 2018 at 14:41 | comment | added | Geoffrey Thomas♦ | 'Humean' is the spelling. | |
| Aug 6, 2018 at 14:41 | comment | added | Yechiam Weiss | And @GeoffreyThomas, I'd very much like to see Hume getting into this answer, and not only being mentioned in the comments :) | |
| Aug 6, 2018 at 14:40 | comment | added | Yechiam Weiss | @Tom I'd like to add that in the Humanian (not sure if that's how it's suppose to be written) context, there is no such thing as "logic without causality", or "falsifying causality", as much as the world doesn't require causality to be explained. In a similar, although a bit different manner, you don't have to falsify "God" in order to explain the universe without it. Also, you should check Kant on Hume. | |
| Aug 6, 2018 at 14:19 | comment | added | Tom | @GeoffreyThomas ... 2nd part: You are right. I am with Nietzsche on this. If something has no interaction at all with anything else, it does, for all practical purposes, not exist. If state A and state B (with or without causality, gravity or whatever) exhibit no observable differences, then they are identical. Ergo: If the absence or disappearance of causality has no effect on the world, then the event you named "disappearence of causality" was not actually that event, it wasn't even an event at all. | |
| Aug 6, 2018 at 14:17 | comment | added | Tom | @GeoffreyThomas ... ok, we can work with that. You are making a claim of logical possibility. How do you define logic without causality? | |
| Aug 6, 2018 at 14:09 | comment | added | Geoffrey Thomas♦ | @Tom. ... I'm inclined to stick to this claim of logical possibility and to regard the epistemological question, though perfectly in order and interesting in itself, as beyond my remit. | |
| Aug 6, 2018 at 14:09 | comment | added | Geoffrey Thomas♦ | @Tom. I was making a claim of logical possibility : that there is a logically possible state of affairs in which the world without causality continues to function exactly as it did under causal relations. You appear to be asking how, if the world functions in the same way without causality as it does with causality, we could tell that causality had ceased. This is an epistemological question. My only point was that causality could disappear and yet nothing change in our experience.... | |
| Aug 6, 2018 at 11:17 | comment | added | Geoffrey Thomas♦ | @Tom. Let me think. I know the main lines of my response but want to formulate the answer properly. Bear with me ;)- Best - Geoff | |
| Aug 6, 2018 at 10:44 | comment | added | Tom | I'm interested in sources for the argument that the world would be the same. Isn't this a case of "it it quacks like a duck..."? If the world is indistinguishable from one with causality, how do you falsify causality? | |
| Aug 6, 2018 at 5:34 | comment | added | Geoffrey Thomas♦ | Point well taken - very good. Hume would certainly agree since he does believe that, since all events are distinct, any event or state of affairs can be followed by any other. He wouldn't expect the cow to spawn on the moon since it isn't among the regularities in our experience - but no more than that. Thank you - Best : Geoff | |
| Aug 5, 2018 at 20:03 | comment | added | user3776022 | I think that, in a causeless world, a cow could also spawn on the moon since no chain of events is necessary to transport the cow from point A (earth) to point B (the moon). | |
| Aug 5, 2018 at 20:01 | vote | accept | user3776022 | ||
| Aug 5, 2018 at 19:52 | comment | added | Geoffrey Thomas♦ | @user3776022. I entirely agree but it is logically possible, that was the only point I was making. Very roughly, if a state of affairs can be described without self-contradiction then it is logically possible. My 'no change' scenario meets that condition. It's also logically possible for a cow to jump over the moon though I don't expect it to happen ;)- Best - GT | |
| Aug 5, 2018 at 19:42 | comment | added | user3776022 | The world could indeed work exactly as it does now, but without causality there is no reason to assume that it would. I was thinking that the following things could just as well happen in such a world: objects spawning into existence out of nowhere; deaths occuring despite there being no cause of death; and no guarantee guarantee of the arrow of time (entropy). My question pertains to the extent of what could happen, not whether the world could remain the same. My question has to do with what causality would inhibit in this world that would be possible in the other world. | |
| Aug 5, 2018 at 17:11 | history | edited | Geoffrey Thomas♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Text added for clarification.
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| Aug 5, 2018 at 16:02 | history | answered | Geoffrey Thomas♦ | CC BY-SA 4.0 |