Blog posts : "General"
Hume’s many problems with causation
David Hume denied the reality and knowability of causation due to numerous conceptual confusions and much fallacious thinking; and unfortunately, many philosophers have foolishly followed and continue to follow his lead to this day. There are two kinds of philo...
Origins and evolution of the idea of causality
I believe the origins and evolution of the idea of causality to be as follows. This may be viewed as a hypothesis to be confirmed (in whole or in part) through empirical (psychological, sociological, and historical) studies.
On the individual level, ...
Volition and influence
Volition, or freewill, is causality by an unmoved mover[1], meaning a self-moving entity, something moving literally by itself, without being immediately forced or indirectly programmed to do so either by a complete causative or by natural spontaneity (or by another unmoved...
The logical possibility of natural spontaneity
As it turns out, natural spontaneity is advocated by modern physicists in the field of quantum mechanics. So, the theoretical allowance for it by aetiology provides a rational basis and a language for the putative phenomenon. This concept has no posi...
The four determinations of causation
Causation, which is deterministic causality, involves four generic determinations, two strong and two weak[1]:
Complete causation (symbol m): If C, then E; if notC, not-then E; where: C is possible.
Necessary causation (symbol n): If notC, then notE; if C, not...
The four main concepts of causality
We all frequently engage in causal thinking, looking for or claiming to have found the causes or effects of something, whether for personal purposes or sundry scientific ones. Our life would be impossible without such thought processes; we would be left blind, ...
Selfhood is the basis of morality and society.
In my book Meditations (2006), I argued that the self must be assumed to be a unity persisting during the whole life of an organism. Those reflections are very relevant to the present context.
According to Buddhist theory, the self has no continuity,...
Three principles for biologists to ponder.
Allow me, as a result of the above reflections, to formulate a number of basic principles for the advancement of the science of biology, to help it evolve from its current narrow, materialist perspective to a more advanced, enlightened one. Modern biolog...
A biological science that acknowledges soul.
Let us now consider how the idea of ‘soul’ might be fitted in the narrative proposed by modern evolutionary biology. This science teaches us that sensory perception was a product of evolution. Moreover, the sense of sight evolved relatively suddenly (...
A soul is needed for cognition.
I would like now to draw attention to another contradiction in today’s widespread belief system.
Firstly, most of today’s biologists, if pressed, would deny that humans or animals have souls; some might rather evade the issue. But this question is, in truth, not e...
Theory of sense-perception.
This brings us to the self-contradiction of current materialist theories of sense-perception. The currently normative theory of sense-perception, which has its roots in modern ‘Enlightenment’ philosophy – notably the philosophies of René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, John...
Phenomenology.
The logical starting point of epistemology, the study of knowledge as such, i.e. the philosophical description, explanation, and justification, of knowledge acquisition by humans, cannot be sense-perception per se because sense-perception must itself be correctly described, explai...
Philosophy of mind.
Clarifying the true ‘philosophy of mind’ is essential to understanding volition, and other forms of causality. David Hume’s assault on volition and more broadly on all causality[1], was made possible by his erroneous general views on mind and cognition. It is amazing how naïv...
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