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Single Idea 15859

[filed under theme 14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / g. Causal explanations ]

Full Idea

If one wished to know the cause of each thing, why it comes to be or perishes or exists, one had to find what was the best way for it to be, or to be acted upon, or to act. Then it befitted a man to investigate only ...what is best.

Gist of Idea

To investigate the causes of things, study what is best for them

Source

Plato (Phaedo [c.382 BCE], 097d)

Book Ref

Plato: 'Complete Works', ed/tr. Cooper,John M. [Hackett 1997], p.84

A Reaction

A reversal of the modern idea of 'best explanation'. Socrates is citing Anaxagoras's proposal to understand things by interpreting the workings of a supreme Mind. It is the religious version of best explanation.

The 32 ideas with the same theme [explanation as showing the causes of events]:

20892 Democritus was devoted to discovering causal explanations [Democritus, by Eusebius]
15859 To investigate the causes of things, study what is best for them [Plato]
22522 To grasp something, trace it back to its natural origins [Aristotle]
1669 The foundation or source is stronger than the thing it causes [Aristotle]
13165 Geometrical proofs do not show causes, as when we prove a triangle contains two right angles [Proclus]
17238 Science aims to show causes and generation of things [Hobbes]
17022 We should admit only enough causes to explain a phenomenon, and no more [Newton]
17021 Natural effects of the same kind should be assumed to have the same causes [Newton]
19398 Minds are best explained by their ends, and bodies by efficient causes [Leibniz]
16805 Causal inference is by spotting either Agreements or Differences [Mill, by Lipton]
17062 If scientific explanation is causal, that rules out mathematical explanation [Smart]
13052 Hempel rejects causation as part of explanation [Hempel, by Salmon]
13061 Flagpoles explain shadows, and not vice versa, because of temporal ordering [Salmon]
4809 Lewis endorses the thesis that all explanation of singular events is causal explanation [Lewis, by Psillos]
14321 To explain an event is to provide some information about its causal history [Lewis]
9658 An explanation tells us how an event was caused [Lewis]
16280 Often explanaton seeks fundamental laws, rather than causal histories [Lewis]
17094 The causal theory of explanation neglects determinations which are not causal [Ruben]
16813 To explain is to give either the causal history, or the causal mechanism [Lipton]
16815 Mathematical and philosophical explanations are not causal [Lipton]
16849 Explanations may be easier to find than causes [Lipton]
16846 A cause may not be an explanation [Lipton]
16848 Causal inferences are clearest when we can manipulate things [Lipton]
8406 Not all explanations are causal, but if a thing can be explained at all, it can be explained causally [Sanford]
4395 There are non-causal explanations, most typically mathematical explanations [Psillos]
4806 An explanation can just be a 'causal story', without laws, as when I knock over some ink [Psillos]
14367 An explanation is a causal graph [Woodward,J, by Strevens]
13929 Natural explanations give the causal interconnections [Haslanger]
20058 Not all explanation is causal. We don't explain a painting's beauty, or the irrationality of root-2, that way [Stout,R]
15144 Explanation of causal phenomena concerns essential kinds - but also lack of them [Chakravartty]
15117 Greek uses the same word for 'cause' and 'explanation' [Koslicki]
17299 There are plenty of examples of non-causal explanation [Audi,P]