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Single Idea 4542
[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 7. Eliminating causation
]
Full Idea
Science has emptied the concept of causality of its content and retained it as a formula of an equation, in which it has become at bottom a matter of indifference on which side cause is placed and on which side effect.
Gist of Idea
Science has taken the meaning out of causation; cause and effect are two equal sides of an equation
Source
Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §551)
Book Ref
Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Will to Power', ed/tr. Kaufmann,W /Hollingdate,R [Vintage 1968], p.296
A Reaction
What a perceptive remark in the nineteenth century. Science is notoriously uninterested in the direction of time, and such a symmetry seems to make the concept of causation redundant.
The
19 ideas
with the same theme
[scepticism about the whole idea of causation]:
3062
|
There are no causes, because they are relative, and alike things can't cause one another
[Pyrrho, by Diog. Laertius]
|
1896
|
If there were no causes then everything would have been randomly produced by everything
[Sext.Empiricus]
|
1897
|
Knowing an effect results from a cause means knowing that the cause belongs with the effect, which is circular
[Sext.Empiricus]
|
1898
|
Cause can't exist before effect, or exist at the same time, so it doesn't exist
[Sext.Empiricus]
|
8341
|
Hume never even suggests that there is no such thing as causation
[Hume, by Strawson,G]
|
12113
|
The search for first or final causes is futile
[Comte]
|
24140
|
Cause and effect is a hypothesis, based on our supposed willing of actions
[Nietzsche]
|
4542
|
Science has taken the meaning out of causation; cause and effect are two equal sides of an equation
[Nietzsche]
|
4396
|
The law of causality is a source of confusion, and should be dropped from philosophy
[Russell]
|
8376
|
If causes are contiguous with events, only the last bit is relevant, or the event's timing is baffling
[Russell]
|
14172
|
Moments and points seem to imply other moments and points, but don't cause them
[Russell]
|
14175
|
We can drop 'cause', and just make inferences between facts
[Russell]
|
11954
|
We should analyse causation in terms of powers
[Molnar]
|
20366
|
A mind that could see cause and effect as a continuum would deny cause and effect
[Richardson]
|
15126
|
Maybe scientific causation is just generalisation about the patterns
[Hawthorne]
|
20650
|
The Uncertainty Principle implies that cause and effect can't be measured
[Watson]
|
10387
|
The notion of causation allows understanding of science, without appearing in equations
[Schaffer,J]
|
10388
|
Causation is utterly essential for numerous philosophical explanations
[Schaffer,J]
|
14954
|
Causation is found in the special sciences, but may have no role in fundamental physics
[Ladyman/Ross]
|