Elements of metaphysicsTaylor, A. E. (Alfred Edward)
Philosophy
Elements of metaphysics
Taylor, A. E. (Alfred Edward)
Metaphysics
If you consider the _lines_ _a_ and α, as Dr. Stout prefers to do, I
should have thought two views possible. (_a_) There are not two lines
at all, but one, the “junction” at M being merely ideal. Then there
remains nothing to connect and there is no relation of “immediate
connection.” Or (_b_), the junction may be taken as real, and then you
have a perfectly ordinary case of relation, the terms being the
terminated lines _a_ and α, and the relation being one of contact at
M. On every ground (_a_) seems to me the right view, but it is
incompatible with the reduction of continuity to “immediate
connection.” Thus the source of the difficulty is that (1) immediate
connection can only hold between the immediately successive terms of a
discontinuous series, and yet (2) _cannot_ hold between them precisely
_because_ they are discontinuous.
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CHAPTER V
THE WORLD OF THINGS—(2) CHANGE AND
CAUSALITY
§ 1. The conception of things as interacting leads to the two problems
of Change and Causality. The paradoxical character of change due to
the fact that only what is permanent can change. § 2. Change is
succession within an identity; this identity, like that of
Substance, must be teleological, _i.e._ must be an identity of plan
or end pervading the process of change. § 3. Thus all change falls
under the logical category of Ground and Consequence, which becomes
in its application to succession in time the Principle of Sufficient
Reason. § 4. _Causality._ Cause—in the modern popular and scientific
sense—means the ground of a change when taken to be completely
contained in preceding changes. That every change has its complete
ground in preceding changes is neither an axiom nor an empirically
ascertained truth, but a postulate suggested by our practical needs.
§ 5. In the last resort the postulate cannot be true; the dependence
between events cannot be one-sided. The real justification for our
use of the postulate is its practical success. § 6. Origin of the
conception of Cause anthropomorphic § 7. Puzzles about Causation.
(1) _Continuity._ Causation must be continuous, and yet in a
continuous process there can be no distinction of cause from effect.
Cause must be and yet cannot be prior in time to effect. § 8. (2)
_The indefinite regress_ in causation. § 9. (3) _Plurality of
Causes._ Plurality of Causes is ultimately a logical contradiction,
but in any form in which the causal postulate is of practical use it
must recognise plurality. §10. The “necessity” of the causal
relation psychological and subjective. §11. Immanent and Transeunt
Causality: Consistent Pluralism must deny transeunt Causation; but
cannot do so successfully, §12. Both transeunt and immanent
Causality are ultimately appearance.
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