Single Idea 8317

[catalogued under 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 8. Particular Causation / b. Causal relata]

Full Idea

Philosophers who have advocated facts as being causal relata have confused them with states, such as a stone's being heavy; they are guilty of confusing states of affairs with states of objects.

Gist of Idea

To cite facts as the elements in causation is to confuse states of affairs with states of objects

Source

E.J. Lowe (The Possibility of Metaphysics [1998], 11.3)

Book Reference

Lowe,E.J.: 'The Possibility of Metaphysics' [OUP 2001], p.236


A Reaction

A state of an object can be individuated rather more precisely than a fact or state of affairs. There are, of course, vast numbers of states of objects, but only a few states of affairs, involved in (say) the fall of the Berlin Wall.