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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]
|
8400
|
Identifying cause and effect is not just conventional; we explain later events by earlier ones
[Field,H]
|
8401
|
Physical laws are largely time-symmetric, so they make a poor basis for directional causation
[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]
|
10390
|
Causal order is not temporal, because of time travel, and simultanous, joint or backward causes
[Schaffer,J]
|
10389
|
Causal order must be temporal, or else causes could be blocked, and time couldn't be explained
[Schaffer,J]
|