back to ideas for this text


Single Idea 14565

[from 'Getting Causes from Powers' by S.Mumford/R.Lill Anjum, in 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 8. Particular Causation / b. Causal relata ]

Full Idea

It would be counterintuitive to say that we have the cause only when the sugar cube first comes into contact with the water, and the effect only once the whole sugar cube has dissolved.

Gist of Idea

Sugar dissolving is a process taking time, not one event and then another

Source

S.Mumford/R.Lill Anjum (Getting Causes from Powers [2011], 5.6)

Book Reference

Anjum,R.J./Mumford,S.: 'Getting Causes from Powers' [OUP 2011], p.123


A Reaction

The way we end up thinking about causation is largely dictated by the language we use to describe it. The whole point of philosophy is to scrape away the language and see what is really going on.