more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 5545

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 9. General Causation / a. Constant conjunction ]

Full Idea

The concept of cause always requires that something A be of such a kind that something else B follows from it necessarily and in accordance with an absolutely universal rule. Appearances may give a rule that something usually happens, but not necessarily.

Gist of Idea

Appearances give rules of what usually happens, but cause involves necessity

Source

Immanuel Kant (Critique of Pure Reason [1781], B124/A91)

Book Ref

Kant,Immanuel: 'Critique of Pure Reason', ed/tr. Guyer,P /Wood,A W [CUO 1998], p.223

A Reaction

I must side with Hume when it is put like this. As all empiricists are keen to tell us, a strong feeling of necessity is not enough to guarantee it. Has Kant confused 'natural' and 'metaphysical' necessity? We can't learn natural necessity a priori.

The 24 ideas with the same theme [causation as a regular link between event-types]:

2364 Causation is only observation of similar events following each other, with nothing visible in between [Hobbes]
6730 We discover natural behaviour by observing settled laws of nature, not necessary connections [Berkeley]
3662 Hume says we can only know constant conjunctions, not that that's what causation IS [Hume, by Strawson,G]
2193 No causes can be known a priori, but only from experience of constant conjunctions [Hume]
4771 In both of Hume's definitions, causation is extrinsic to the sequence of events [Psillos on Hume]
5194 Hume's definition of cause as constantly joined thoughts can't cover undiscovered laws [Ayer on Hume]
2221 A cause is either similar events following one another, or an experience always suggesting a second experience [Hume]
2234 It is only when two species of thing are constantly conjoined that we can infer one from the other [Hume]
16946 Causation is just invariance, as long as it is described in general terms [Quine on Hume]
15250 If impressions, memories and ideas only differ in vivacity, nothing says it is memory, or repetition [Whitehead on Hume]
8383 Day and night are constantly conjoined, but they don't cause one another [Reid, by Crane]
23677 We all know that mere priority or constant conjunction do not have to imply causation [Reid]
5545 Appearances give rules of what usually happens, but cause involves necessity [Kant]
8377 Causation is just invariability of succession between every natural fact and a preceding fact [Mill]
8380 Striking a match causes its igniting, even if it sometimes doesn't work [Russell]
8371 Recurrence is only relevant to the meaning of law, not to the meaning of cause [Ducasse]
8598 If things turn red for an hour and then explode, we wouldn't say the redness was the cause [Shoemaker]
8421 Regularity analyses could make c an effect of e, or an epiphenomenon, or inefficacious, or pre-empted [Lewis]
8391 In counterfactual worlds there are laws with no instances, so laws aren't supervenient on actuality [Tooley]
8384 The regularity theory explains a causal event by other items than the two that are involved [Crane]
8338 A phenomenalist about objects has to be a regularity theorist about causation [Strawson,G]
14537 Coincidence is conjunction without causation; smoking causing cancer is the reverse [Mumford/Anjum]
12400 Cries the maid: 'You must marry me Hume!'... [Sommers,W]
16527 Causation - we all thought we knew it/ Till Hume came along and saw through it/…. [Sommers,W]