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    Progress occurs universally across all phenomena as a dev... — Carmelics
    Home/Causation
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    Progress occurs universally across all phenomena as a development from the simple to the complex.

    Causation
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Every active force produces more than one change — every cause produces more than one effect.
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    • 2.This causal law applies uniformly to all phenomena.
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    • 3.Evidence of development from homogeneity to heterogeneity is found in astronomy, geology, and linguistics.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Thermodynamic entropy demonstrates that many physical processes develop from complex ordered states toward simpler, more homogeneous equilibria.
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    • 2.If a universal causal law governs all phenomena, it cannot simultaneously produce both complexification and simplification as its primary tendency.
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    • 3.Spencer's law therefore describes only a subset of processes, not a universal developmental trajectory.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Lyell's uniformitarianism and Nietzsche's eternal recurrence both challenge the assumption that change has an inherent directional or progressive structure.
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    • 2.Without an independent criterion distinguishing 'complexity' from mere 'difference', the claim that heterogeneity constitutes progress is a normative imposition, not an empirical finding.
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    Connections

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    Modality & Possibility1 linkedNatural Theology1 linked

    Related

    Every active force produces more than one change — every cause produces more tha...Evidence of development from homogeneity to heterogeneity is found in astronomy,...If a universal causal law governs all phenomena, it cannot simultaneously produc...Lyell's uniformitarianism and Nietzsche's eternal recurrence both challenge the ...
    +4 moreShow less
    Spencer's law therefore describes only a subset of processes, not a universal de...Thermodynamic entropy demonstrates that many physical processes develop from com...This causal law applies uniformly to all phenomena.Without an independent criterion distinguishing 'complexity' from mere 'differen...

    Similar

    Deviations from Newtonian behaviour arise both from the tendency of in...74%A regular sequence of phenomena cannot establish a necessary connectio...73%Nature exhibits regularity, with parts of nature coming about in patte...73%Causality consists in nothing more than the regular sequence of phenom...73%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: progress
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    In “Progress, its Law and Cause,” Spencer makes a different argument. He defines progress as “an advance from homogeneity of structure to heterogeneity of structure” (1857, v. 1, 9). Progress occurs by way of “successive differentiations” (10). The law of progress is simply that “every active force produces more than one change—every cause produces more than one effect” (37). Spencer claims that all phenomena exhibit the same development from the simple to the complex for this same reason.
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit