Philosophy Stack Exchange
Philosophy Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [causality]

162 questions
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Is God necessarily superfluous?

Unless you are a believer in a physical God, you must assume that God, through some mysterious way, causes physical effects while being “non physical” himself (whatever that means). But each physical effect has a preceding physical cause. Hence, why…
Baby_philosopher
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What are the requirements for performing a counterfactual inference?

Can someone point me towards a review of philosophical literature that covers the requirements for inferring a counterfactual outcome?
curious_dan
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Does explanation matter in philosophy?

In everyday life people supposedly have a reason for acting in a certain way, or when under scrutiny, they can-to a certain degree-attribute certain actions as intended components to a process that would-to the best of their understanding-enable…
user43583
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Is this statement about causality a fair representation of Hume's view?

Would it be accurate to say that according to Hume causality is another way to describe the (relative) permanence of steps in causal chains of events? If this is not the case, what would be considered a brief and accurate portrayal of causality,…
user43583
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What are some examples of spontaneous phenomena?

It is said that almost all phenomena are dependent on cause and effect. There is assumed to be a chain of cause and effect ,leading the philosophers and scientist to believe that there must have been a first cause. However spontaneous phenomena do…
Dheeraj Verma
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Is it correct to refute that what exists has a cause?

1.There is a cause for the existence of something. 2.There is causality. 3.There is a cause for the existence of causality. 4.Let's assume the cause A for the existence of causality. 5.A -> existence of causality. 6.It is contradictory to say that…
Dimer
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Do the effects of performing instructions replace or cause their results?

For e.g. a recipe to bake bread consists of finding the ingredients, making the dough and using the oven. If we performed those steps, would the effects of those manifestations become the causes of the baking of bread, or would they 'replace' it?
Richard Bamford
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What does it mean for a process that at least one of its causal factors lie in the future?

In general, a process has many causes, which are said to be causal factors for it, and all lie in its past (more precise: none lie in its future). What does it mean for a process that at least one of its causal factors lie in the future? my…
Achmed
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Causality as a product of creation

Got a short quest if creation gives rise to time and the world. Our perception allows observation of that world and we interpret events within it as a result of which we describe as causality. Action and reaction cause and effect. This observation…
user29363
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When is causality false?

If we say that A causes B, when will this be false? Had it not been A, it would not have been B. Is it only false in the case when it is not A, but is B?
M Moe
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Are there models of causal regresses where each cause-effect pair is mapped to/from the integers?

Let's substitute the event into an integer for example event A is 2 "Cause B" of A is 1 cause of B is 0 Let's represent it like this So what does an integer less than all integers mean? the cause of all events However, there is no integer smaller…
Dimer
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Proof of non-existence of causality? is this right?

Assumption 1: Existence has a cause(Causality) Assumption 2: Causality exists Because causality exists, there is a cause for causality to exist. The cause of the existence of causality is also causality. ("existence has a cause" do exist(Assumption…
Dimer
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How does Boolean logic apply to cause and effect?

I have another burning question about cause and effect and I hope at least one person here will find it useful. So I read this blog post recently and I'm basically just looking for as many perspectives for this as…
Jordan West
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Broad Observations of Agnosticism

So thinking about agnosticism, where one believes only that they are ignorant of god, or any preceding entities behind causality, as I interpret it. I had the question of: "what causes the belief of an underlying entity or force behind…
TheAutomaton
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Does this example prove that an infinite causal regress is impossible?

Let's suppose that a soldier wants to shoot a bullet, but in order to do so he must receive an order from his superior, and his superior must himself receive the order from his superior, ad infinitum. If this chain goes to infinity, the first…
AimaneSN
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