Causality

Causality is an influence by which one event, process, state, or object (a cause) contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object (an effect) where the cause is partly responsible for the effect, and the effect is partly dependent on the cause. In general, a process has many causes,[1] which are also said to be causal factors for it, and all lie in its past. An effect can in turn be a cause of, or causal factor for, many other effects, which all lie in its future. Some writers have held that causality is metaphysically prior to notions of time and space.[2][3][4]

Causality is an abstraction that indicates how the world progresses.[5] As such a basic concept, it is more apt as an explanation of other concepts of progression than as something to be explained by others more basic. The concept is like those of agency and efficacy. For this reason, a leap of intuition may be needed to grasp it.[6][7] Accordingly, causality is implicit in the logic and structure of ordinary language,[8] as well as explicit in the language of scientific causal notation.

In English studies of Aristotelian philosophy, the word "cause" is used as a specialized technical term, the translation of Aristotle's term αἰτία, by which Aristotle meant "explanation" or "answer to a 'why' question". Aristotle categorized the four types of answers as material, formal, efficient, and final "causes". In this case, the "cause" is the explanans for the explanandum, and failure to recognize that different kinds of "cause" are being considered can lead to futile debate. Of Aristotle's four explanatory modes, the one nearest to the concerns of the present article is the "efficient" one.

David Hume, as part of his opposition to rationalism, argued that pure reason alone cannot prove the reality of efficient causality; instead, he appealed to custom and mental habit, observing that all human knowledge derives solely from experience.

The topic of causality remains a staple in contemporary philosophy.

  1. ^ Compare: Bunge, Mario (1960) [1959]. Causality and Modern Science. Vol. 187 (3, revised ed.) (published 2012). pp. 123–124. Bibcode:1960Natur.187...92W. doi:10.1038/187092a0. ISBN 9780486144870. S2CID 4290073. Retrieved 12 March 2018. Multiple causation has been defended, and even taken for granted, by the most diverse thinkers [...] simple causation is suspected of artificiality on account of its very simplicity. Granted, the assignment of a single cause (or effect) to a set of effects (or causes) may be a superficial, nonilluminating hypothesis. But so is usually the hypothesis of simple causation. Why should we remain satisfied with statements of causation, instead of attempting to go beyond the first simple relation that is found? {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  2. ^ Robb, A. A. (1911). Optical Geometry of Motion. Cambridge: W. Heffer and Sons Ltd. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  3. ^ Whitehead, A.N. (1929). Process and Reality. An Essay in Cosmology. Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927–1928. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781439118368.
  4. ^ Malament, David B. (July 1977). "The class of continuous timelike curves determines the topology of spacetime" (PDF). Journal of Mathematical Physics. 18 (7): 1399–1404. Bibcode:1977JMP....18.1399M. doi:10.1063/1.523436. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
  5. ^ Mackie, J.L. (2002) [1980]. The Cement of the Universe: a Study of Causation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 1. ... it is part of the business of philosophy to determine what causal relationships in general are, what it is for one thing to cause another, or what it is for nature to obey causal laws. As I understand it, this is an ontological question, a question about how the world goes on.
  6. ^ Whitehead, A.N. (1929). Process and Reality. An Essay in Cosmology. Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927–1928, Macmillan, New York; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK, "The sole appeal is to intuition."
  7. ^ Cheng, P.W. (1997). "From Covariation to Causation: A Causal Power Theory". Psychological Review. 104 (2): 367–405. doi:10.1037/0033-295x.104.2.367.
  8. ^ Copley, Bridget (27 January 2015). Causation in Grammatical Structures. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199672073. Retrieved 30 January 2016.