30
votes
Accepted
What do you call the fallacy of thinking that some action A will guarantee some outcome B, when in reality B depends on multiple other conditions?
What do you call the fallacy of thinking that if A statistically causes B, then A implies B?
For the original title quoted above, the closest is probably correlation implies causation, deducing a ...
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22
votes
Accepted
Is the idea that "Everything is energy" even coherent?
Memorably, Feynman in his Lectures on Physics states:
It is important to realize that in physics today, we have no knowledge of what energy is.
Energy, the Subtle Concept. The discovery of Feynman’s ...
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19
votes
Is the idea that "Everything is energy" even coherent?
There are a number of quantities that physics has found to be conserved.
"Conserved" means that if you take a situation, and you measure what is in it, then something happens in it (where ...
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19
votes
Accepted
If physics can be reduced to mathematics (and thus to logic), does this mean that (physical) causation is ultimately reducible to implication?
Physics, or indeed any other science, does not reduce to mathematics. Rather, physical relationships are expressible in the language of mathematics. If you wish to state Coulomb's Law, you can use a ...
- 29k
15
votes
Why is mind interacting with matter any more problematic than matter interacting with matter?
Mainly because we have no idea how mind and matter are supposed to interact
Causation is understood by many in a way that makes that problematic. This post gives a perfectly neutral definition which ...
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14
votes
If physics can be reduced to mathematics (and thus to logic), does this mean that (physical) causation is ultimately reducible to implication?
Bumble's answer is spot on, but I thought I'd show you the fallacy of your reasoning a little more concisely.
You are engaging a fallacy called reification. From WP:
Reification (also known as ...
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12
votes
What fallacy infers motivation from mere description?
The issue in the example seems to be that the word "dominate" is used in two different senses. When this is done in an argument (it is not clear that this is so here) the fallacy is called ...
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12
votes
Accepted
Why is mind interacting with matter any more problematic than matter interacting with matter?
The key difference between matter-matter interactions and mind-matter interactions is that we have been able to discover governing relationships (eg Newton's laws, Coulomb's law, General Relativity ...
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11
votes
What would reality be like without causality?
Conceivably, there is another way for a universe to be ordered rather being random and chaotic with invoking casuality: teleology.
In a teleological universe things would do the things they do because ...
- 1,230
10
votes
What would reality be like without causality?
I think this question cuts much deeper than most are giving it credit for. It is quite similar to free will versus determinism.
Consider a simple universe consisting of a single snake and a sequence ...
- 650
8
votes
Accepted
Is it a logical flaw to blame someone for an event if they were simply its causal factor?
This is well-known in ethics, but not as a flaw of argumentation, rather as the problem of causal resposibility. The problem is thorny because drawing the line depends on resolving highly ...
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8
votes
Do non physical causes exist?
To quote a cliche, the jury is still out on the question of the nature of the mind. There seems to be no doubt that thought and contemplation are somehow associated with physical processes in the ...
- 24.8k
7
votes
Accepted
If we imagine a world that functions without causality, how absurd could it be?
If the world were without causality then it need not change in any way. It might fortuitously behave exactly as it does now. This is certainly a logical possibility.
If the world were without ...
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7
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Why is mind interacting with matter any more problematic than matter interacting with matter?
I agree, the interaction problem is not unique to mind/body questions. For example, the original materialism posited everything was atoms colliding. However, now we know nothing collides, all ...
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7
votes
Causation in physics equation
Physicists observe correlations.
Physical laws explain observations by inventing physical concepts
and clarifying their relation. These relations are often causal
relations.
Physical laws do not deal ...
- 36.9k
7
votes
Can the absense of something be a cause?
I suppose what motivates your question is that often when we think of causes and effects we have in mind some kind of mechanism whereby some event or feature of a situation gives rise to another. ...
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7
votes
Can loops/cycles (in a temporal sense) exist without beginnings?
It depends on whether you mean beginning and end in a purely spatial sense, or in a spatiotemporal sense. A loop or circle has no beginning or end by virtue of its spatial existence, but the processes ...
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6
votes
What fallacy infers motivation from mere description?
My interpretation is that the original statements are not necessarily fallacious, but rather a question of the semantics carried by the word "dominate." To dominate can mean colloquially that one ...
- 161
6
votes
Does a biconditional necessarily imply a causal relationship?
No. If and only if [time passes] then [Uranium238 decays]. Time does not cause the decay, but it can't happen unless time passes.
Another example is quantum entanglement. Given two entangled photons ...
- 376
6
votes
Why is mind interacting with matter any more problematic than matter interacting with matter?
Not everyone has an "inner monologue" or ability to vividly imagine things: this is known as aphantasia. At an imaginary-angled diagonal from that, there are also people who are pain-...
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6
votes
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 ...
- 31.4k
6
votes
Causation in physics equation
Equations by definition simply equate, so if you state the laws of physics as equations, without any of the associated narrative, then you are not stating the laws of physics!
Some equations express ...
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5
votes
Sketch of a proof for real free will?
I have read many contemporary philosophers and the mainstream view seems to be that real free will is an illusion in the sense that consciousness is an emergent phenomenon which is only set on top of ...
- 1,624
5
votes
Is causality a type of necessary and sufficient condition?
Simply put, causality would imply that the cause is a sufficient condition for the effect.
That A caused B would only mean that A is a sufficient condition for B -- not that A is a necessary ...
- 24.9k
5
votes
What do you call the fallacy of thinking that some action A will guarantee some outcome B, when in reality B depends on multiple other conditions?
The patient has confused necessary and sufficient conditions. Brushing one's teeth is necessary for good dental health, but is not sufficient to guarantee that outcome.
- 59
5
votes
What's wrong with this reconstruction of Nagarjuna?
In his book The Fundalmental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nagarjuna's Malamadhyamakakarika, Jay L. Garfield writes for his translation and commentary on this verse:
The essence of entities
Is ...
- 3,661
5
votes
Kant on causation
This question is multi-faceted and I'll try to answer the aspects as shortly and succinct as possible. I think the main problem you are facing is that you in some sense did not quite fully understand ...
- 14.4k
5
votes
Is the idea that "Everything is energy" even coherent?
In a nuclear explosion, we might say, "matter is converted into energy." But you can't exactly see energy or hold a piece of energy in your hand. It's not "glowy stuff" (as often ...
- 16.5k
5
votes
What would reality be like without causality?
Random.
If there is no causal relation then you'd have no fixed chain in which events do occur and so things just happen randomly. Now the question is whether there is local or short ranged causality ...
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