Questions tagged [causality]
The causality tag has no usage guidance.
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Is the principle of cause and effect bound to material?
I am having a hard time finding an answer to my question. The reason I’m asking it is to figure out if cause and effect could have existed before the universe was created. If anyone has insight on ...
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Is there any principle that requires only things that begin to exist have a cause?
William Lane Craig argues that everything that begins to exist has a cause. But what about the reverse? Do things that don’t begin to exist not have a cause? Do things that exist past eternally ...
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Can Free Will be Explained?
Explanations are causal, at least to the extent that I'm aware. If I explain X then I basically identify and expand on the cause of X (if X involves an ontological claim the explanans is all about ...
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Is the argument from freewill further supported by causal arguments
The argument from freewill is a paradox that can be loosely described as, if God is omniscient or all knowing then God subject's, man , cannot have freewill as the 'fate' or actions of man have been ...
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Do acausal quantum events come in between two classical events?
You'll have to forgive my ignorance if the answer to this question has lots of examples of how and when this occurs.
My knowledge of determinism is that it is a picture of a chain of events that goes ...
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Are there phenomena which are partially spontaneous and partially causal?
Events can be spontaneous or non spontaneous. Spontaneous is defined as occurring without apparent external cause. Non spontaneous events are causal, that is, there is cause and effect.
Suppose an ...
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Does Hume's objection to causality apply to human actions?
I heard the example with the kid and the toys from this video (TL;DW A kid who has only been playing with cotton toys gets a rubber ball and is surprised to see it bounce. His father is not surprised ...
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What are some examples of spontaneous phenomena?
It is said that almost all phenomena are dependent on cause and effect. There is assumed to be a chain of cause and effect ,leading the philosophers and scientist to believe that there must have been ...
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Explanation of the cause of the event of the beginning of time
Events in the natural world are determined to have temporal cause and a temporal effect.
One temporal event is the cause of another temporal event which is the effect of that temporal cause and forms ...
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Please evaluate my argument about incompleteness theorem and first cause
Here is my argument:
One of the incompleteness theorems is
“If a system is noncontradiction, it is incomplete”
Incomplete means that there are propositions that are true but cannot be proven.
The ...
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cause “for which all causal relations exist”
Suppose there is a cause “for which all causal relations exist”.
The cause exists before “all causal relationships exist.”
Before “all causal relationships exist,” causal relationships do not exist.
...
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If nothing is preventing something from existing, must it exist?
The question in the title; if there is no existent precluding factor (whatsoever) for the existence of some x, must such a x exist?
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Killing with bare hands vs Rube Goldberg killing machine: How can we connect causes to persons, and so be morally responsible for effects by us?
What brought up this question:
I was watching a television show and was thinking of how powerful individuals can obtain hired guns to do their dirty work. The police and legal system then has ...
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On the framing of causality?
So I shall restrict Nagarjuna's dependent arising of phenomena to the physical realm*. The source of my understanding is "Part Two, Chapter one - Examination of Conditions" of the book the ...
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What's the meaning and roots of the notion of "fault"?
This may sound naive and I'm not a native english speaker, but recently I've started wondering what people really mean by the notion of "fault", for example in the context of saying "it'...
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causation correlation and constraints
We know causation doesn't imply correlation and correlation doesn't imply causation.
I was curious to know does constraints implies correlation or causation.
If A constraints B and B constraints A ...
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What is character, and what role does it play in the decision making of an agent, according to proponents of libertarian free will?
I understand libertarian free will as an agent's ability to choose otherwise, or having more than one course of action available to them, when making a choice at time t, given a fixed past up to t. ...
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Can a totally ordered set with a last element but no first element exist, or is this contradictory?
Can a totally ordered set with a last element but no first element exist, or is this contradictory? An example of such a set would be a set that is ordered from largest to smallest, with there being ...
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Cause of the outcome of quantum events
Do quantum events have no definite cause , a cause but the cause is unknown, they have no cause, they simultaneously have a cause and do not have a cause , there is a known cause, causes of events at ...
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Is it true that there are phenomena without causes?
assume that there is cause A for "existence of all causality"
(A -> all causality exist)
It is contradictory that cause A belonging to causality exists before all causality exists.
Thus, &...
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Are there models of causal regresses where each cause-effect pair is mapped to/from the integers?
Let's substitute the event into an integer
for example
event A is 2
"Cause B" of A is 1
cause of B is 0
Let's represent it like this
So what does an integer less than all integers mean?
the ...
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Is it correct to refute that what exists has a cause?
1.There is a cause for the existence of something.
2.There is causality.
3.There is a cause for the existence of causality.
4.Let's assume the cause A for the existence of causality.
5.A -> ...
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How is causal order not assuming directionality of time?
Hans Reichenbach argues for the causality and causal chain to define a topological coordinative definition of time order. Here is an excerpt from his textbook, The Philosophy of Space and Time, Dover(...
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Is instantiation of properties causal?
Strange question here but can an object instantiating a property be a cause of it instantiating another different property? For example; I instantiate the property of being hairy and warm blooded ...
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How can we establish that causal relationships existed in the past?
From Hume's problem of induction, it is intuitive to me that, for example, "taking aspirin in the past has relieved my headaches" is insufficient to say with certainty that "taking an ...
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How can mathematical results impact the physical world?
In his 2007 book I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas Hofstadter uses an analogy based on a domino computer.
Indeed, it is possible to build logical doors made of dominoes (see e.g. here) and realize simple ...
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Does Hume undermine determinism? [closed]
The problem of induction (kind courtesy David Hume) states that causality isn't deductively justified.
Determinism, predicated on causality, isn't justified.
Ergo, free will is (at the very least) ...
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What is this idea of causality being articulated?
So I wanted to ask about the kind of causality when someone says something of the sort: "Communism made these people destroy their own society" or "I have a brilliant idea now I will ...
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Does anything exist that doesn't cause effects?
In trying to understand the meaning of the word 'exist', I'm asking if there is anything exists that doesn't cause effects. Or is there anything that causes effects that doesn't exist?
If not then it ...
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Does David Hume hold an opinion on the kinds of objects of causation?
I'm reading about causality in the Treatise of Human Nature by D. Hume but I can't seem to find out exactly what he considers objects to be when talking about causes and effects. At some points he ...
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Do the effects of performing instructions replace or cause their results?
For e.g. a recipe to bake bread consists of finding the ingredients, making the dough and using the oven. If we performed those steps, would the effects of those manifestations become the causes of ...
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Can a final cause also be an efficient cause?
Aristotle distinguishes between four causes: material, efficient, formal and final. However, his use of 'cause' is different than our use. Our use of 'cause' is just the efficient cause, thing A ...
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Does Newton's first law of motion contradicts causality?
First, English is not my mother tongue and hence maybe the expressions I will use are not very accurate.
Causality as I understand is when there is a change, then there is a preceding event "...
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Causation vs correlation in the context of physics
How to know whether A and B is causal or correlated? Is it correct to say that physicists have always been concerned about causation? The laws of physics are stated in terms of equations that have ...
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Decision and volition: Can an act ever be voluntary in the absence of a decision to perform it?
Note: 'Act' here = 'A thing done'.
Imagine two acts:
The act of deciding to drink.
The act of drinking.
Suppose the decision to drink (Act 1) is involuntary.
Is there any mechanism by which ...
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Do we cause words to mean things, or do words cause us to mean things?
This question occurred to me while reviewing a skeptical argument from Kripke regarding semantics:
Suppose that I’ve never dealt with numbers larger than 57. (Given our finite nature and the ...
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Spinoza: finding examples of a definite cause: where if no definite cause be granted, the effect cannot follow
When we typically think of cause and effect, we start with an event such as a death of a person and we ask what was the cause. For example, we might say that the cause of death was a heart attack.
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What is 'Ability to Do Otherwise'?
Many times in discussions elsewhere and in answers here, certain distinctions and claims hinge on Ability to Do Otherwise. However, whether those distinctions are meaningful or claims likely or able ...
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What is the difference between control exerted by an agent and causation?
I have my own thoughts about this. Am I on the right track or is there some real philosophy that defines the concept of control differently?
In a regular cause & effect scenario the cause ...
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Does Efficient Cause include Preventive Cause as a subspecies?
Aristotle defines 'efficient cause' (in Physics II.3, 194b24 ff) as “the primary starting point from which change or rest originates”. Does the phrase 'or rest' come to include 'preventive cause' (an ...
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Causality and Modal concepts
I am a physics student but very interested in some topic of philosophy (specially in analytic philosophy).
A question which have been struggled me for some time is the relation between modal concepts ...
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How to be skeptical of transcendental arguments?
SEP and others have transcendental arguments as claims “namely that X is a necessary condition for the possibility of Y—where then, given that Y is the case, it logically follows that X must be the ...
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What does "causally independent structures" mean?
I'm reading a book (Cummins, R. (1983), "The Nature of Psychological Explanation") where he says "...dispositions that cannot be instantiated in causally independent structures".
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cause of everything?
Ornaments (gold ornaments) cannot be made without gold. Ornaments are nothing but gold.
The cause of everything is included in everything.
If the cause of everything is A, then A is included in ...
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Does analysis start with a premise or conclusion?
I'm trying to perform an analysis but I'm unsure which way around the premise and conclusions are.
Here is the example:
"The circulatory system is able to circulate blood.".
Now I'm trying ...
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The reason why this world repeats the same situation infinitely [closed]
The cause of everything belongs to everything
The cause of everything is everything
This is true for other reasons as well.
"Everything is the cause of everything"="If everything, then ...
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Most important modern/contemporary essays on free will
I enjoy philosophising about free will and formulating arguments as to why it cannot exist. I would like to write about my arguments so that they are relevant in today's literature, and so, I want to ...
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Are patterns prior to causes? Which philosophers are hesitant to believe there really are causes?
Most people and most philosophers seem to strongly believe in causation. I would like understand what philosophers have to say about how to go from believing in just patterns to causes too.
Are the ...
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Proof of non-existence of causality? is this right?
Assumption 1: Existence has a cause(Causality)
Assumption 2: Causality exists
Because causality exists, there is a cause for causality to exist.
The cause of the existence of causality is also ...
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Does causality have a role in predicting the future compared to knowing the past?
Example: Buckling of a rod: It is easy to know the previous position of a buckled rod, but it is impossible to predict the direction of buckling from the unbuckled position.
Does causality play any ...
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