What is the nature of causality?

Question

Two events happen nearby, chiming in unison by virtue of our limited intelligence and we say "There! Cause and effect". But who can really say what variables exist under the surface and how that may change in the future. Isn't everything we think we know just a working hypothesis?

Answer 1

It is how our reality works; its operational system. Thinking we know is based on hidden assumptions/beliefs. The real culprit is that everything we BELIEVE we know is pure misperception.

You are right about the difficulty of tracing causality, but I agree with Spinoza that just because we cannot grasp cause and effect, doesn't mean there is no causality or first cause - it is just too complex for our present abilities. Science has proven him right again and again, i.e. the Black Death wasn't vapors afterall.

But, the one causality we are required to get to the bottom of as humans (unless we are speaking of our passion which goes without saying) is our relationship with reality. Here cause and effect are never separated which provides the certainty that sooner or later we CAN get to the bottom of what our ego has faith in that blocks our bliss.

Answer 2

Waht you're talking about is the lynchpin of Chaos Theory, or at least the practical application of it. But if you want to talk about randomness etc, well, think about Physics-they are fundemental laws governing our reality as it is perceived, but behind every theory and hypothesis, is something ELSE that has been proven by yet another observence.
So-cause and effect-drop an egg from a height-not only are you looking at cause:release of said egg, and Splatttt: impact and mess as effect-we're also relying on gravity-which is proven by a number of similarly observed laws etc!
Randomness does exist-of course, but what you're talking about is an anarchy or rulelessness! Everything has variables-even if it is simply wind current, heat of room, butterfly effect etc-but really, these "laws" are merely efforts to account for the SMALL things that we can take for granted. In the morning, you can wake up, certain that if you were to drop and egg-it would indeed smash in yolky glory....unless it was dropped from a low height onto a watermattress covered in fine feathers.....but then, there is a reason, and a law, and a rule for that too-an accounted for variable that alters the effect! Wohoo!
Hope this helped, or at least annoyed you in some slight way :)!
Shane

Answer 3

The theory of cause and effect, or causality, is a description of a phenomenon repeatedly observed. Physics seek to unravel the underlying laws responsible for such recurring phenomena expressed through mathematics. Yet, the laws of physics are no more than a mathematical description of observed phenomena categorized under concepts which describe the similarities of independent events, ignoring the dissimilar aspects differentiating them, or focussing beyond them to an inherent likeness, or relationship between seemingly autonomous events, creating a view point or reference through which the phenomena is to be interpreted.

If what the laws predict does not occur, and no explanation exists from current theories of understanding to explain such aberration, that one event will not threaten a theory, though it will bring doubt to our conceptions of reality. For a theory to be overthrown, an unlawful event or phenomena has to occur more than ones. How many, I do not know, yet, until the theory proves insufficient for describing reality, it will stand until replaced with a more accurate theory incorporating the anomaly in its description of what motivates or moves events (laws).

Just because a theory is a theory in stead of ultimate fact, does not make it invalid or useless. In fact, even if we all agree that our descriptions of reality is not necessarily objectively precise and true, it has little bearing on what those theories contribute to our utilisation or interpretation of nature. A more precise theory should empower us more, yet each preceding theory played its part in unravelling the true nature of reality. The theory of causality has opened more possibilities than any theory of the ‘creator’ ever has.

Answer 4

Interestingly, Sir Popper has made the working hypothesis view the cornerstone of his philosophy of science. Every (scientific) theory is to be falsifiable.
Again, it is one of the fallacies of statistics to misjudge statistical correlations as causality.
Causality to me is a learned hypothesis like pattern recognition - which is just hard wired into our brains...
The cause of some results in an experiment is "proven" by taking away possible influences and re-running the experiment etc.

Answer 5

Isn't it physics, every action has an equal and opposite reaction? Which in effect is cause and effect. And also chaos theory/butterfly effect we will never know the true effect of our actions, because the butterfly that flapped its wings im sure never knew that it would be a factor in a hurracaine.

Answer 6

Without the evolution of space-time language as psychophysical sensation of moments been (or that will possibly be) there is no cause - there is only affect/effect upon affect/effect upon ... Even the sensation as so-called cause is only another effect as blind brain activity. This is not to deny 'cause' as a moment that's been, but to demonstrate that so-called cause only has any use when it affects/effects physical action for the continuance of the physical organism

Answer 7

Yes it is. And if you take a look back in history of science and philosophy, you will get that same message: Nothing IS ,everything HAPPENS. From Euclidean geometry to multi-dimensional, from solid determinism to acceptance of the occasional as nature's force, From sun-god to nuclear fission to the theory of chords - Einstein was the one that told "Actually, god is playing dice ?- or something like that.
We stick to something until we find something else to replace it with.
And above all, our senses rule our world, no matter the theory.

Answer 8

The law of attraction is the only law I need to know since I am neither a philosopher nor a lawyer.

Answer 9

Yes. Randomness underpins everything.

Answer 10

Yes. We just guess, but the nature is so complicated that everytime makes a new event. If you believe in God and his power, only he knows what happens and what is the reason.