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    Conflating definitional and causal questions risks circul... — Carmelics
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    Challenges→In physics, the questions 'whether X is' and 'what X is' both ask for any kind of cause of X's existing, including extrinsic efficient or final causes.

    Conflating definitional and causal questions risks circular explanation, since extrinsic causes presuppose the prior identification of the definable entity they act upon.

    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Causal explanation requires identifying what entity is being acted upon before describing how external forces affect it.
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    • 2.Defining something purely by its external causes creates infinite regress—each cause needs prior definition of what it causes.
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    • 3.Water's liquidity can't be explained solely by gravity acting on it; we must first define water's intrinsic nature.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.Many properties emerge from causal interactions themselves, so definition and causation need not be sequentially ordered.
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    • 2.Natural kinds are often identified precisely through their causal roles, not prior to discovering them—no circularity required.
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    • 3.The claim assumes definitions are metaphysically prior to causal facts, but this priority relationship is itself contestable.
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    Connections

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    Proof of definition segments1 linkedCausation1 linked

    Related

    Causal explanation requires identifying what entity is being acted upon before d...Defining something purely by its external causes creates infinite regress—each c...In physics, the questions 'whether X is' and 'what X is' both ask for any kind o...Many properties emerge from causal interactions themselves, so definition and ca...
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    Natural kinds are often identified precisely through their causal roles, not pri...The claim assumes definitions are metaphysically prior to causal facts, but this...Water's liquidity can't be explained solely by gravity acting on it; we must fir...

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    claim
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    2 (1 for, 1 against)
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