Questions tagged [causation]
The causation tag has no usage guidance.
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Can the concept of antisets be used for a neo-mechanist causal set theory?
Background information:
"Causal Approaches to Scientific Explanation," sec. 1. My takeaway here is looking at individual existential quantifications, i.e. quantifying over individual causal ...
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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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Logical relations between reasons and behavior cannot be cause and effect?
I'm listening to this lecture on mental causation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RefjI1lGT-Q&t=1466s
At 22:50, the lecturer says, "Hume told us didn't he that there can't be logical ...
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Why is mind interacting with matter any more problematic than matter interacting with matter?
So there's this supposedly an 'interaction' problem for substance dualism, that isn't there for physicalism or idealism. I've never understood this.
So as Hume pointed out, we see event a followed by ...
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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 happens to statements like cause must precede effect for the mental events for this model?
My understanding is that for this model (epiphenomenalism (?)) is there isn't mental causation rather a kind of mapping between physical and mental events?
What happens to statements like cause must ...
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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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What is the definition of libertarian free will?
I've seen similar questions asked once or twice on here, but I wasn't able to find a satisfying defense of libertarian free will. The answers seemed to be kind of scattered. So, I wanted to make ...
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Do preceding events cause subsequent ones in a four-dimensionalist world?
I feel like this question has a good chance of having been asked here before, but the first ten-odd "similar questions" listed by the site when I composed the title didn't cover what I'm ...
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Is butterfly effect always happening?
You are sitting at front of house with warm tea. Right when you drinking it with glass, there is vehicle accident at street of front house.
If you didn't drink it at that time before, will the ...
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Are things "caused" by the butterfly effect actually caused by them?
I once read that even a humble medieval peasant merely had to sneeze to cause events hundreds of years in the future:
"Not just Napoleon but the humblest medieval peasant had only to
sneeze in ...
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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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What would reality be like without causality? [closed]
If there were no physical laws of causality (law of gravitation, etc.) would there be "events", what would happen in the world when we act in our day to day life's? Trying to imagine a ...
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Who has defended a non-causal (emanationist) concept of strong emergence, compatible with reductionism?
Often in debates about emergence, an opposition is set up between (strong) emergence and reductionism. These are seen as incompatible alternatives.
In particular, if one believes in downward causation,...
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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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An argument against Hume's idea of necessary connection
In section 7 of the Enquiry Hume talks about necessary connection being an ambiguous metaphysical concept since even though we see events happening one after another (ex. hitting a billiard ball ...
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causality vs determinism
Does causality implies determinism?
Causation is a necessary relation between cause and effect and I consider determinism as "state of the future will be uniquely fixed by the past's state "
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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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Brute facts and the burden of proof
I'm trying my best to understand Della Rocca's article "PSR", which I believe convincingly shows that that one cannot reasonably hold that some facts are brute while others are not without a ...
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Causation with Inductive/Deductive Logic
I'm sofa-philosopher and I have a case I can't quite dismantle. My friend (let's call him John) just made a statement that I find philosophically weak, and I'd like to run it thru you guys.
So, John ...
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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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Does time have a beginning? [closed]
I'm not expecting to learn individual points of view of those who read this question here (The specific question here is whether time has a beginning - not general ideas pertaining to philosophy of ...
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Leibniz's theory of subtance and causal interaction - with God
It follows from Leibniz' complete concept theory of truth that substances have no causal interaction with another. But Leibniz also says that created substances depend on God and that God conserves ...
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If y is a direct result of x, and x is occurring, is y unavoidable?
Suppose knocking over a glass has the direct result of making fall. If you knock over a glass, will it fall, no matter what?
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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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How does a dualist explain changing their mind?
If I'm a monist about the mind and physicalism and/or causal determinism, when I change my mind about some topic, I can posit something causally linked to my mind as changing my opinion. Perhaps I ...
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Is the idea that "Everything is energy" even coherent?
There are many New Age websites claiming Everything is energy. Does this even make sense in philosophy of physics and metaphysics?
How can something be "made out of energy"? As far as I ...
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Is the reason why we can't come up with a perfect definition of causation, that our common idea of causation is diffuse?
I have read a lot about theories of causation lately. None of them define causation satisfactorily. Either you end up with a definition that comes very close to common sense, but at the same time is ...
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Questions about Reichenbach's Principle and causes
Is "statistical dependences need to be explained causally" an accurate depiction of Reichenbach's Principle? (Rob Spekkens https://youtu.be/n8NRSPCekmI?t=1575)
Does one need to accept this ...
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Suzy and Billy throwing rocks at a bottle or hitting a bell - are these examples of late preemption?
Regarding causation, late preemption occurs, when a process (cause) leads to an effect, but a backup-process is also set in motion and would have led to the same effect, if the other process wouldn't ...
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How does Spinoza deduce substance must cause itself?
Prop. VII. Existence Belongs to the Nature of Substance
Spinoza demonstrates this by arguing substance must be the cause of itself, i.e. existence must belong to the nature of substance (by def. 1). ...
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Is there a Possible World in which Humeanism isn't true?
I'm an amateur philosopher, interested in the work of Ned Hall:
Mindscape podcast: Ned Hall on Possible Worlds and the Laws of Nature (Dec-2019)
PhilPapers: Humean Reductionism About Laws Of Nature (...
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What's the difference between a causal relation and a causal and nomic relation?
If a nomic and causal relation is a relation in which something cause something else and this effect is dependent on the properties of the causal object, what is specific in a simple causal relation?
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What's the relationship between physical and logical causation?
I have always presumed that logical causation - such as logical rules like the formation of a valid syllogism, or the law of the excluded middle - operate independently of physical causation. That is, ...
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Kant on causation
I want to start off by saying that I'm not a philosophy major and haven't read any texts. All my understanding is from Wikipedia, Stanford website and Reddit. Please don't hold that against me.
I have ...
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What's the difference between "cause" and "allow"?
Let's say person A picks up a pencil and drops it and person B catches it.
I think most people would agree that person A dropping the pencil allowed person B to catch it, but did not cause person B to ...
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Why does cause exist?
We intuitively believe that everything must have a cause. If that is true, does it mean that causation itelf must have a cause? To be clear, I do NOT mean "does the cause of a cause have a cause?&...
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Why are Heisenberg's uncertaity principle and the quantum theory considered to upset or to affect human experience of reality? [closed]
These two principles seem to have caused an uproar within the scientific community and to have supposedly disrupted notions of 'causality'. Since both features already existed before their 'discovery' ...
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Why is causation not just a special case of correlation?
Here is more context to the question.
A common example given of the “obviousness” that correlation does not equal causation is that shark attacks correlate with ice cream consumption. The explanation ...
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Free Will as Incoherent (What's wrong with this argument?)
Is this a sound argument?
Free will is a cause that is neither determinism nor stochastic.
Causes are either deterministic or stochastic.
Free will is an incoherent entity
All incoherent entities do ...
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Is the idea of a causal chain physical (or even scientific)?
I am aware that the idea is venerable, going back through Lucretius to the Stoics and Epicurus, and even to Aristotle with his prime mover argument. But isn't this a pre-scientific notion? The ...
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How can God be in the genus of efficient causes?
In Summa Theologica I q. 3 a. 5 "Whether God is contained in a genus?", Aquinas says that if God were in a genus, it would be the genus of "being," but being cannot be the genus of anything (cf. ...
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Is there a non singularist analysis of causation which says it's an internal relation?
The final distinction we will need, or more accurately, family of distinctions, is between internal and external relations. What makes them members of a single family is that a relation is internal if ...
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What's wrong with this reconstruction of Nagarjuna?
I was trying to add clarity to my concept of "rebirth" on the Buddhist stack exchange. Nagarjuna's karika, 1.3 (Batchelor) reads:
The essence of things does not exist in conditions and so on. If ...
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What is the "ontic principle"?
"there is no difference that does not make a difference"
according to Bryant. Specifically, and independent of whether this is stated by him, does it mean that any two terms with the same referent ...
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How does Buddhist soteriology link to the first cause argument?
Aquinas argued that the observable order of causation is not
self-explanatory. It can only be accounted for by the existence of a
first cause; this first cause, however, must not be considered ...
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Some questions on causality and modern science
Note: I'm translating the vocabulary from Spanish so there may be some erroneous terms. If so, please edit them.
In Causality: the place of the causal principle in modern science by Mario Bunge, the ...
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What is the relationship between scientific explanation and interpretability?
I am trying to understand the relationship between Scientific Explanation and Intelligibility / Understanding. I believe the former is grounded in the Metaphysics of Causation while the latter is ...
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Examples of identical sets which are not causal?
Google is failing me in my search for examples of identical sets which do no have causal relationships between them. What I mean is that all and only objects which belong to set A belong to set B, but ...
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