Determinism 4

Causality

Introduction

Aside: Questions of the meaning of words are always problematic. Why?

Two broad approaches to causality - that there are 'connections' between things, and that there are not.

Nothing-behind-the-scenes-ism

Can there be patterns in events, but nothing bringing those patterns about?

Nothing-behind-the-scenes-ism applied to causality

When you observe billiard balls colliding, what you see is a sequence of events, but not any actual 'push' or 'force'.

· One tempting conclusion: causes are not observable.
· David Hume's conclusion: the concept of cause must be understood as making a remark about patterns among events. (A word whose meaning is not tied to what is observable cannot be meaningful.)

Kant on causality

(a) The principle of causality is true a priori
(b) Causality makes it possible to think of an 'external' world.

The human mind and the external world

VP