more from this thinker     |     more from this text

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]