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Single Idea 5861

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 5. Direction of causation ]

Full Idea

Men take its occurring after as its occurring because.

Gist of Idea

People assume events cause what follows them

Source

Aristotle (The Art of Rhetoric [c.350 BCE], 1401b30)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'The Art of Rhetoric', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,H.C. [Penguin 1991], p.210

A Reaction

The Latin is 'post hoc propter hoc' - after this so because of this. It is quite a good inductive rule, but obviously open to abuse, as in legal cases, as when someone happens to acquire a lot of money just after a crime.

The 19 ideas with the same theme [explain the past-to-future direction of causes]:

5861 People assume events cause what follows them [Aristotle]
11207 A cause can exist without its effect, but the effect cannot exist without its cause [Aquinas]
8410 A theory of causal relations yields an asymmetry which defines the direction of time [Reichenbach, by Salmon]
8363 p is a cause and q an effect (not vice versa) if manipulations of p change q [Wright,GHv]
8364 We can imagine controlling floods by controlling rain, but not vice versa [Wright,GHv]
8351 With diseases we easily trace a cause from an effect, but we cannot predict effects [Anscombe]
8413 Cause must come first in propagations of causal interactions, but interactions are simultaneous [Salmon]
15278 Humean accounts of causal direction by time fail, because cause and effect can occur together [Harré/Madden]
8405 A theory of causation should explain why cause precedes effect, not take it for granted [Lewis, by Field,H]
8427 I reject making the direction of causation axiomatic, since that takes too much for granted [Lewis]
8433 There are few traces of an event before it happens, but many afterwards [Lewis, by Horwich]
8393 We can only reduce the direction of causation to the direction of time if we are realist about the latter [Tooley]
8401 Physical laws are largely time-symmetric, so they make a poor basis for directional causation [Field,H]
8400 Identifying cause and effect is not just conventional; we explain later events by earlier ones [Field,H]
8402 The only reason for adding the notion of 'cause' to fundamental physics is directionality [Field,H]
4210 If the concept of a cause says it precedes its effect, that rules out backward causation by definition [Lowe]
10375 At least four rivals have challenged the view that causal direction is time direction [Schaffer,J]
10389 Causal order must be temporal, or else causes could be blocked, and time couldn't be explained [Schaffer,J]
10390 Causal order is not temporal, because of time travel, and simultanous, joint or backward causes [Schaffer,J]