Logical form can't dictate metaphysics, as it may propose an undesirable property [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
Logical form should not have the last word in metaphysics, since it might predicate a property that we have theoretical reason to reject.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 1.3.1)
A reaction:
These kind of warnings need to be sounded all the time, to prevent logicians and language experts from pitching their tents in the middle of metaphysics. They are welcome guests only,
7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 8. Facts / b. Types of fact
Full Idea:
It can be argued that if all facts are logically equivalent, then there is only one fact - the True.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 1.1)
A reaction:
[he cites Davidson's 'Causal Relations', who cites Frege] This is the sort of bizarre stuff you end up with if you start from formal logic and work out to the world, instead of vice versa.
21. Aesthetics / C. Artistic Issues / 7. Art and Morality
If the King likes music then there is hope for the state [Mengzi (Mencius)]
Full Idea:
If the King has a great fondness for music, then perhaps there is hope for the state of Ch'i.
From:
Mengzi (Mencius) (The Mengzi (Mencius) [c.332 BCE], 1.B.1)
A reaction:
This seems to be Shakespeare's attitude to music as well. The general idea must be that love of music requires a selfless state of mind, where the mind revels in the beauty of something outside of itself. Respect is the desirable result.
22. Metaethics / A. Ethics Foundations / 2. Source of Ethics / e. Human nature
Human nature is naturally compassionate and good (as a 'sprout'), but people may not be good [Mengzi (Mencius), by Norden]
Full Idea:
Mengzi does not claim that humans are innately good; he claims that human nature is innately good. …He says that 'the heart of compassion' (manifested when anyone sees a child about to fall into a well) is the 'sprout of benevolence'.
From:
report of Mengzi (Mencius) (The Mengzi (Mencius) [c.332 BCE]) by Bryan van Norden - Intro to Classical Chinese Philosophy 6.II
A reaction:
There is a nice distinction here between the 'sprout' of human nature and the finished product. Seeds have the potential to produce tall healthy plants, but circumstances can warp them.
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / f. Ultimate value
Righteousness is extending the unthinkable, to reveal what must be done [Mengzi (Mencius)]
Full Idea:
People all have things they will not do. To extend this reaction to that which they will do is righteousness.
From:
Mengzi (Mencius) (The Mengzi (Mencius) [c.332 BCE], 7B31), quoted by Bryan van Norden - Intro to Classical Chinese Philosophy 6.IV
A reaction:
Very nice! Kekes points out the enormous importance of unthinkable deeds. Depravity is when the unthinkable gradually begins to look possible, which is probably a social phenomenon, a creeping cancer in a culture.
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / a. Virtues
Each correct feeling relies on an underlying virtue [Mengzi (Mencius)]
Full Idea:
The heart of compassion is benevolence. The heart of disdain is righteousness. The heart of respect is propriety. The heart of approval and disapproval is wisdom.
From:
Mengzi (Mencius) (The Mengzi (Mencius) [c.332 BCE], 6A6), quoted by Bryan van Norden - Intro to Classical Chinese Philosophy 6.III
A reaction:
'Disdain' seems to be the response to anyone who is disrespectful. Note that wisdom concerns judgements. Respect seems to be more of a social convention than an actual concern for others.
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / e. Honour
Should a coward who ran fifty paces from a battle laugh at another who ran a hundred? [Mengzi (Mencius)]
Full Idea:
If two soldiers were fleeing from a battle, and one stopped after a hundred paces and the other stopped after a fifty paces, what would you think if the latter, as one who only ran fifty paces, were to laugh at the former who ran a hundred?
From:
Mengzi (Mencius) (The Mengzi (Mencius) [c.332 BCE], 1.A.3)
A reaction:
A nice illustration, in my view, of the universality of truths about human virtue. In no culture would this laughter be appropriate. Nevertheless, there must be degrees of dishonour. Better to flee than join in with the likely winners.
24. Political Theory / C. Ruling a State / 2. Leaders / b. Monarchy
A true king shares his pleasure with the people [Mengzi (Mencius)]
Full Idea:
If you shared your enjoyment of music or of hunting with the people, you would be a true King.
From:
Mengzi (Mencius) (The Mengzi (Mencius) [c.332 BCE], 1.B.1)
A reaction:
I suspect that this is a great truth for dictators and traditional monarchs. One pictures the successful ones attending public entertainments, and allowing the public to see their own. Tyrants keep entertainment private. Nero is a counterexample!
24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 7. Communitarianism / a. Communitarianism
Extend the treatment of the old and young in your family to the rest of society [Mengzi (Mencius)]
Full Idea:
Treat the aged of your own family in a manner befitting their venerable age and extend this treatment to the aged of other families. Treat your own young in a manner befitting their tender age, and extend this to the young of other families.
From:
Mengzi (Mencius) (The Mengzi (Mencius) [c.332 BCE], 1.A.7)
A reaction:
This seems to me to articulate the ideal of communitarianism very nicely. Morality is not just about healthy adults in war and peace. It must include the children and the old. The values of the family are above the values of contracts and calculations.
25. Social Practice / D. Justice / 3. Punishment / b. Retribution for crime
Only put someone to death if the whole population believes it is deserved [Mengzi (Mencius)]
Full Idea:
When close attendants say a man deserves death, do not listen; when all the councillors say so, do not listen; when everyone says so, have the case investigated. If he is guilty, put him to death; he was put to death by the whole country.
From:
Mengzi (Mencius) (The Mengzi (Mencius) [c.332 BCE], 1.B.7)
A reaction:
The jury system is a gesture in this direction. Compare Idea 95. In Mencius's time, no doubt, everyone believed that capital punishment was sometimes right. Nowadays, when many people (e.g. me) reject it, the procedure won't work.
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 1. War / e. Peace
Seeking peace through war is like looking for fish up a tree [Mengzi (Mencius)]
Full Idea:
Your desire to extend your territory by war, in order to bring peace, is like looking for fish by climbing a tree.
From:
Mengzi (Mencius) (The Mengzi (Mencius) [c.332 BCE], 1.A.7)
A reaction:
Mencius had a flair for analogies. Just occasionally I suppose he might be wrong on this point, but I would think that experiments in the laboratory of history have shown that he is right in nearly all cases.
25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 5. Education / b. Education principles
Learned men gain more in one day than others do in a lifetime [Posidonius]
Full Idea:
In a single day there lies open to men of learning more than there ever does to the unenlightened in the longest of lifetimes.
From:
Posidonius (fragments/reports [c.95 BCE]), quoted by Seneca the Younger - Letters from a Stoic 078
A reaction:
These remarks endorsing the infinite superiority of the educated to the uneducated seem to have been popular in late antiquity. It tends to be the religions which discourage great learning, especially in their emphasis on a single book.
25. Social Practice / F. Life Issues / 6. Animal Rights
Avoid the animals you are going to eat, as it is hard once you have got to know them [Mengzi (Mencius)]
Full Idea:
Once a gentleman has seen animals alive, he cannot bear to see them die, and once having heard their cry, he cannot bear to eat their flesh. That is why the gentleman keeps his distance from the kitchen.
From:
Mengzi (Mencius) (The Mengzi (Mencius) [c.332 BCE], 1.A.7)
A reaction:
If you applied this to a Gestapo officer and his victims, it would obviously be the epitome of wickedness. But it is complex. Compassion is expected when we encounter suffering, but we are not obliged to seek out suffering. Or are we?
In causation there are three problems of relata, and three metaphysical problems [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
The questions about causation concern their relata (in space-time, how fine-grained, how many?) and the metaphysics (distinguish causal sequences from others, the direction of causation, selecting causes among pre-conditions?).
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], Intro)
A reaction:
A very nice map (which has got me thinking about restructuring this database). I can't think of a better way to do philosophy than this (let's hear it for analysis - but the greatest role models for the approach are Aristotle and Aquinas).
Causation may not be transitive; the last event may follow from the first, but not be caused by it [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
It is not clear whether causation is transitive. For example, if a boulder roll's towards a hiker's head, causing the hiker to duck, which causes the hiker to survive, it does not seem that the rolling boulder causes the survival of the hiker.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 1.2)
A reaction:
Maybe survival is not an event or an effect. How many times have I survived in my life? We could, though, say that the hiker strained a muscle as he or she ducked. But then it is unclear whether the boulder caused the muscle-strain.
There are at least ten theories about causal connections [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
Theories of causal connection are: nomological subsumption, statistical correlation, counterfactual dependence, agential manipulability, contiguous change, energy flow, physical processes, property transference, primitivism and eliminativism.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 1.3.1)
A reaction:
Schaffer reduces these to probability and process. I prefer the latter. The first two are wrong, the third right but superficial, the fourth wrong, the fifth, sixth and seventh on the right lines, the eighth wrong, the ninth tempting, and the last wrong.
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 4. Naturalised causation
Causation transcends nature, because absences can cause things [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
The main argument for causation being transcendent (rather than being immanent in nature) is that absences can be involved in causal relations. Thus a rock-climber is caused to survive by not falling.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 1.1)
A reaction:
I don't like that. The obvious strategy is to redescribe the events. Even being hit with a brick could be described as an 'absence of brick-prevention'. So not being hit by a brick can be described as 'presence of brick prevention'.
Causation may not be a process, if a crucial part of the process is 'disconnected' [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
One problem case for the process view of causation is 'disconnection'. If a brick breaks a window by being fired from a catapult, a latch is released which was preventing the catapult from firing, so the 'process' is just internal to the catapult.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.1.1)
A reaction:
Schaffer says the normal reply is to deny that the catch-releasing is genuinely causal. I would have thought we should go more fine-grained, and identify linked components of the causal process.
A causal process needs to be connected to the effect in the right way [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
A problem case for the process view of causation is 'misconnection'. A process may be connected to an effect, without being causal, as when someone watches an act of vandalism in dismay.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.1.1)
A reaction:
This is a better objection to the process view than Idea 10377. If I push a window with increasing force until it breaks, the process is continuous, but it suddenly becomes a cause.
Causation can't be a process, because a process needs causation as a primitive [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
It might be that if causation is said to be a process, then a process is nothing more than a causal sequence, so that causation is primitive.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.1.2)
A reaction:
This again is tempting (as well as the primitivist view of probabilistic causation). If one tries to define a process as mere chronology, then the causal and accidental are indistinguishable. I take the label 'primitive' to be just our failure.
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 5. Direction of causation
At least four rivals have challenged the view that causal direction is time direction [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
The traditional view that the direction of causation is the direction of time has been challenged, by the direction of forking, by overdetermination, by independence, and by manipulation, which all seem to be one-directional features.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 1.3.1)
A reaction:
Personally I incline to the view that time is prior, and fixes the direction of causation. I'm not sure that 'backward causation' can be stated coherently, even if it is metaphysically or naturally possible.
Causal order must be temporal, or else causes could be blocked, and time couldn't be explained [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
Reasons for causal order being temporal order are that otherwise the effect might occur but the cause then get prevented, ..and that they must be the same, because the temporal order can only be analysed in terms of the causal order.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.2)
A reaction:
If one took both time and causation as primitive, then the second argument would be void. The first argument, though, sounds pretty overwhelming to me.
Causal order is not temporal, because of time travel, and simultanous, joint or backward causes [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
Reasons for denying that causal order is temporal order are that time travel seems possible, that cause and effect can be simultaneous, because joint effects have temporal order without causal connection, and because backward causation may exist.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.2)
A reaction:
The possibility of time travel and backward causation can clearly be doubted, and certainly can't be grounds for one's whole metaphysics. The other two need careful analysis, but I think they can be answered. Causation is temporal.
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 6. Causation as primitive
Causation is primitive; it is too intractable and central to be reduced; all explanations require it [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
Primitivism arises from our failure to reduce causation, but also from causation being too central to reduce. The probability and process accounts are said to be inevitably circular, as they cannot be understood without reference to causation.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.1.2)
A reaction:
This is very tempting. The primitive view, though, must deal with the direction problem, which may suggest that time is even more primitive. Can we have a hierarchy of primitiveness? To be alive is to be causal.
If causation is just observables, or part of common sense, or vacuous, it can't be primitive [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
The three main objections to causation being primitive are that causation can't be anything more than what we observe, or that such a primitive is too spooky to be acceptable, or that primitivism leads to elimination of causation.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.1.2)
A reaction:
[summarised] I don't like the first (Humean) view. I suspect that anything which we finally decide has to be primitive (time, for example) is going to be left looking 'spooky', and I suspect that eliminativism is just Humeanism in disguise.
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 7. Eliminating causation
The notion of causation allows understanding of science, without appearing in equations [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
The concepts of 'event', 'law', 'cause' and 'explanation' are nomic concepts which serve to allow a systematic understanding of science; they do not themselves appear in the equations.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.1.2)
A reaction:
This is a criticism of Russell's attempt to eliminate causation from science. It shows that there has to be something we can call 'metascience', which is the province of philosophers, since scientists don't have much interest in it.
Causation is utterly essential for numerous philosophical explanations [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
Causation can't be eliminated if it is needed to explain persistence, explanation, disposition, perception, warrant, action, responsibility, mental functional role, conceptual content, and reference. It's elimination would be catastrophic.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.1.2)
A reaction:
[compressed list] I think I am going to vote for the view that causation is one of the primitives in the metaphysics of nature, so I have to agree with this. Most of the listed items, though, are controversial, so eliminativists are not defeated.
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 8. Particular Causation / a. Observation of causation
If two different causes are possible in one set of circumstances, causation is primitive [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
Causation seems to be primitive if the same laws and patterns of events might embody three different possible causes, as when two magicians cast the same successful spell, each with a 50% chance of success, and who was successful is unclear.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.1.2)
A reaction:
I'm cautious when the examples involve magic. It implies that the process that leads to the result will be impossible to observe, but if magic never really happens, then the patterns of events will always be different.
If causation is primitive, it can be experienced in ourselves, or inferred as best explanation [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
The view that causation is primitive can be defended against Humean critics by saying that causation can be directly observed in the will or our bodies, or that it can be inferred as the best explanation.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.1.2)
A reaction:
I like both views, and have just converted myself to the primitivist view of causation! I can't know the essence of a tree, because I am not a tree, but I can know the essence of causation. The Greek fascination with explaining movement is linked.
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 8. Particular Causation / b. Causal relata
Full Idea:
Events are relatively coarse-grained, unlike facts; so the event of John's saying 'hello' seems to be the same event as John's saying 'hello' loudly, while they seem to be different facts.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 1)
A reaction:
The example seems good support for facts, since saying 'hello' loudly could have quite different effects from just saying 'hello'. I also incline temperamentally towards a fine-grained account, because it is more reductivist.
Causal relata are events - or facts, features, tropes, states, situations or aspects [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
The standard view make causal relata events (Davidson, Kim, Lewis), but there is considerable support for facts (Bennett, Mellor), and occasional support for features (Dretske), tropes (Campbell), states of affairs (Armstrong), and situations and aspects.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 1)
A reaction:
An event is presumed to be concrete, while a fact is more abstract (a proposition, perhaps). I'm always drawn to 'processes' (because they are good for discussing the mind), so an event, as a sort of natural process, looks good.
One may defend three or four causal relata, as in 'c causes e rather than e*' [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
The view that there are two causal relata is widely assumed but seldom defended. But the account based on 'effectual difference' says the form is 'c causes e rather than e*'. One might defend four relata, in 'c rather than c* causes e rather than e*'.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 1)
A reaction:
[compressed] This doesn't sound very plausible to me. How do you decide which is e*? If I lob a brick into the crowd, it hits Jim rather than - who?
If causal relata must be in nature and fine-grained, neither facts nor events will do [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
Theorists who reject both events and facts as causal relata do so because the relata must be immanent in nature, and thus not facts, but also fine-grained and thus not events.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 1.2)
A reaction:
Kim, however, offers a fine-grained account of events (as
The relata of causation (such as events) need properties as explanation, which need causation! [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
The primitivist about causation might say that the notion of an event (or other relata) cannot be understood without reference to causation, because properties themselves are individuated by their causal role.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.1.2)
A reaction:
Having enthusiastically embraced the causal view of properties (see Shoemaker and Ellis), I suddenly realise that I seem required to embrace primitivism about causation, which I hadn't anticipated! I've no immediate problem with that.
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 8. Particular Causation / d. Selecting the cause
Our selection of 'the' cause is very predictable, so must have a basis [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
The main argument against saying that there is no basis for selecting the one cause of an event is that our selections are too predictable to be without a basis.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.3)
A reaction:
The problem is that we CAN, if we wish, whimsically pick out any pre-condition of an event for discussion (e.g. the railways before WW1). I would say that sensitivity to nature leads us to a moderately correct selection of 'the' cause.
Selecting 'the' cause must have a basis; there is no causation without such a selection [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
Another argument against the view that there is no basis for selecting 'the' cause is that we have no concept of causation without such a selection.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.3)
A reaction:
Good. Otherwise we could only state the conditions preceding an event, and then every event that occurred at any given moment in a region would have the same cause. How can 'the' cause be necessary, and yet capricious?
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 8. Particular Causation / e. Probabilistic causation
The actual cause may make an event less likely than a possible more effective cause [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
If Pam threw the brick that broke the window, then Bob (who refrained) might be a more reliable vandal, so that Pam's throw might have made the shattering less likely, so probability-raising is not necessary for causation.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.1)
A reaction:
That objection looks pretty conclusive to me. I take the probabilistic view to be a non-starter.
All four probability versions of causation may need causation to be primitive [Schaffer,J]
Full Idea:
All four probability versions of causation may need causation to be primitive: nomological - to distinguish laws from generalizations; statistical - to decide background; counterfactual - decide background; agent intervention - to understand intervention.
From:
Jonathan Schaffer (The Metaphysics of Causation [2007], 2.1.2)
A reaction:
I don't need much convincing that the probabilistic view is wrong. To just accept causation as primitive seems an awful defeat for philosophy. We should be able to characterise it, even if we cannot know its essence.
27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 1. Nature of Time / d. Time as measure
Time is an interval of motion, or the measure of speed [Posidonius, by Stobaeus]
Full Idea:
Posidonius defined time thus: it is an interval of motion, or the measure of speed and slowness.
From:
report of Posidonius (fragments/reports [c.95 BCE]) by John Stobaeus - Anthology 1.08.42
A reaction:
Hm. Can we define motion or speed without alluding to time? Looks like we have to define them as a conjoined pair, which means we cannot fully understand either of them.