VOLITION and Allied Causal Concepts© Avi Sion, 2004.Animals, too, have considerable powers of cognition, volition and valuation.Watch them, and see.You can purchase a paper copy of this bookat The Logician's secure online Bookshop.

The Logic of CAUSATIONandVOLITION and Allied Causal Conceptswere originally intended to constitute, respectively, parts I and II of a larger work called:CAUSAL LOGICDefinition, Deduction and Induction of Causation, Volition and Allied Cause-Effect Relations.The two works were finally published separately, but it is well to keep in mind that they are intended to be one.To paraphrase [...]

Volition and Allied Causal Conceptsis now available as a paperback (408p. A5, $20 plus shipping expenses), and as an eBook ($2.50).To order online click on the following hyperlink:VOLITION and Allied Causal ConceptsReferencesThe following are works cited in the present text, and are not intended as a bibliography for the subject matter treated.Anonymous.The Dhammapada.London: Penguin, 1973.Cleary, [...]

VOLITION and Allied Causal ConceptsAPPENDIXES1.Some formal logic guidelines2.Aristotle’s four causes1.Some formal logic guidelinesWe have in the course of the present work introduced a great number of propositional forms, such as “A wills W”, “X influences A to will W”, and many more. In some cases, we have been content to broadly define a causal relation [...]

VOLITION and Allied Causal ConceptsChapter18.MORE TOPICS IN DEONTOLOGY1.Inducing ethics2.Ethical formulas3.Philosophy of law1.Inducing ethicsHow is ethics actually built up in people’s minds, and how is it to be justified epistemologically? My proposed answer to these questions is as follows.We all have our own ‘intuitions’ of right and wrong, good and bad, just and unjust, kind and [...]

VOLITION and Allied Causal ConceptsChapter17.SOME TOPICS IN DEONTOLOGY1.Founding ethics2.Ethics concerns the living, thinking, willing3.Conscience and conformism4.Tai Chi, karma yoga and faithDeontology is a vast topic, which we can only touch upon in the present volume. I have already made scattered remarks on this subject in previous chapters, and in earlier works[1]; here some additional comments [...]

VOLITION and Allied Causal ConceptsChapter16.THE SELF1.Ungluing the mind2.Abstract vs. concrete self3.Sundry reflections on the soul and GodWe live at a time of cultural globalization, when East and West are meeting and enriching each other. They have of course intersected to some degree at various periods of history[1]. But the present may perhaps be compared in [...]

VOLITION and Allied Causal ConceptsChapter15.MORE ABOUT EVOLUTION1.Social Darwinism2.Spiritual Darwinism3.Theological perspectives1.Social DarwinismDarwinism has, since its inception in the latter half of the 19thCentury, been influential beyond the field of biology proper, in ethical as well as economic, social and political theorizing and commentary, some of which has been pernicious. Under the heading of 'Social Darwinism', racism, [...]

VOLITION and Allied Causal ConceptsChapter14.CONCEPTS OF EVOLUTION1.The logical form of evolution2.Evidence for evolution3.Random mutation4.Natural selection1.The logical form of evolutionOur discussion of the ‘quasi-purposive’ in nature brings us to the topic of ‘evolution’, which some have claimed to be a case in point. Keeping an open mind, we shall examine the issue. Evolution primarily means change [...]

VOLITION and Allied Causal ConceptsChapter13.THE QUASI-PURPOSIVE IN NATURE1.Purposiveness2.Organic functions3.The continuity of life1.PurposivenessThe concept ofpurposeis initially and primarily one relating to human action. We mentally visualize, or conceptually and verbally project, a state of affairs that we would like to bring into existence or to ensure the continued existence of, and proceed to do what we [...]