Single Idea 22619

[catalogued under 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 8. Particular Causation / b. Causal relata]

Full Idea

By abandoning the standard view that causes are ‘extrinsic motive Agents’, an idea from pre-Newtonian physics, we are free to conceive of the interaction as a whole as the cause, and the change in the compound whole of interacting things as the effect.

Gist of Idea

Causes are not agents; the whole interaction is the cause, and the changed compound is the effect

Source

R.D. Ingthorsson (A Powerful Particulars View of Causation [2021], 4.06)

Book Reference

'Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Time', ed/tr. Callender,Craig [OUP 2013], p.68


A Reaction

Ingthorsson persuasively presents this as the correct account, as understood by modern science. It is not cause-then-effect. It is kerfuffle, then aftermath.

Related Ideas

Idea 22618 In modern physics the first and second laws of motion (unlike the third) fail at extremes [Ingthorsson]

Idea 22620 If causation involves production, that needs persisting objects [Ingthorsson]