(Download) "Time, Space, Essence, And Eidos: A New Theory of Causation (Report)" by Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy # eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Time, Space, Essence, And Eidos: A New Theory of Causation (Report)
- Author : Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy
- Release Date : January 01, 2010
- Genre: Religion & Spirituality,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 232 KB
Description
The title of this article might sound presumptuous or strange. The presumptuous part would stem from the adjective 'new'. For some people this word implies absolute novelty, a new theory summoned from nowhere like a genie from a bottle. But such pristine newness would be neither possible nor desirable. The topic of causation has received considerable treatment from the dawn of philosophy, and the highlights of this story are widely known: Aristotle's four causes, the neo-Platonic doctrine of emanation, the divine intervention found in Islamic and French occasionalism, and Hume's skeptical doubts about causation along with Kant's half-hearted solution. While these well-known theories cannot be considered in depth in what follows, their spirit will be present in what I say. The strangeness of the title, by contrast, would arise from the topic of causality itself. With the exception of Hume's doubts about causal links, the theme of causation has largely vanished from philosophy. Whether necessary causal connections can be established or not, how do they work? This is barely spoken of at all. While philosophers remain in perpetual anguish over the single gap between human and world, or the denial of this gap in favor of a primal human-world correlate, causality seems to unfold in a place where philosophy no longer enters--the sphere of inanimate physical things. And since the natural sciences already deal with causation with such spectacular success, it may seem rude or unwise for philosophy to intrude on their terrain. In philosophy, we now feel most comfortable when dealing with the limited sphere of human-world interplay. We dare not venture outside, partly through fear that the sciences might strike back and invade philosophy's humanized ghetto, reducing the mind to a brain and all things to narrowly physical interactions.