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Is the existence of physical substances, such as organisms, compatible with physicalism?

You say: If I, an organism, cause my arm to move, we could say the organism (Z) causes its arm to move. But for this to happen, the organism would need to impart energy and momentum onto its parts (X ...
J D's user avatar
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2 votes

Is the existence of physical substances, such as organisms, compatible with physicalism?

The organism does have causal potency, as do the particles that make it up, and the causal potency of the organism is nothing more than the causal potency of the particles that make it up. When we say ...
causative's user avatar
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2 votes

If physics can be reduced to mathematics (and thus to logic), does this mean that (physical) causation is ultimately reducible to implication?

The simplest law of quantum physics ( Heisenberg's uncertainty principle ) states that you cannot accurately know the position and velocity of elementary particles. Therefore, by definition the future ...
jrrk's user avatar
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-1 votes

If physics can be reduced to mathematics (and thus to logic), does this mean that (physical) causation is ultimately reducible to implication?

If physics can be reduced to mathematics (and thus to logic), does this mean that (physical) causation is ultimately reducible to implication? The idea of reducing mathematics (or anything else) to ...
Speakpigeon's user avatar
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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 ...
J D's user avatar
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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 ...
Bumble's user avatar
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3 votes

If physics can be reduced to mathematics (and thus to logic), does this mean that (physical) causation is ultimately reducible to implication?

A simple model of a universe is Conway's game of life. The universe in Conway's game of life is an infinite 2d grid of "live" (black) and "dead" (white) cells that change in ...
causative's user avatar
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