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Full Idea
Clearly chance is a coincidental cause in the sphere of events which have some purpose and are the subject of choice.
Gist of Idea
Chance is a coincidental cause among events involving purpose and choice
Source
Aristotle (Physics [c.337 BCE], 197a05)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Physics', ed/tr. Waterfield,Robin [OUP 1996], p.45
A Reaction
This is the culmination of his discussion of going to the market place and happening to meet your debtor (196b33). We must now decide whether a 'coincidental cause' is a true case of causation.
13106 | Maybe there is no pure chance; a man's choices cause his chance meetings [Aristotle] |
13108 | Chance is a coincidental cause among events involving purpose and choice [Aristotle] |
13110 | Intrinsic cause is prior to coincidence, so nature and intelligence are primary causes, chance secondary [Aristotle] |
2215 | There is no such thing as chance [Hume] |
14804 | Is chance just unknown laws? But the laws operate the same, whatever chance occurs [Peirce] |
19252 | Objective chance is the property of a distribution [Peirce] |
23900 | Chance is compatible with necessity, and the two occur together [Weil] |
15560 | We can explain a chance event, but can never show why some other outcome did not occur [Lewis] |
20146 | 'Luck' is the unpredictable and inexplicable intersection of causal chains [Kekes] |
19671 | The idea of chance relies on unalterable physical laws [Meillassoux] |