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    Second causes are not real causes because real causes nec... — Carmelics
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    Second causes are not real causes because real causes necessitate their effects and second causes do not.

    Causation
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Hume's constant conjunction analysis shows that so-called 'necessary connections' between second causes and effects are mere psychological habits, not ontological necessities.
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    • 2.If causal necessity is not observable between any two distinct events in nature, then second causes lack the very feature that would make them genuinely causal.
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    • 3.Only a being whose nature is identical with existence itself—whose essence entails existence—can produce effects with true metaphysical necessity, as Aquinas's doctrine of divine simplicity implies.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Malebranche's occasionalism demonstrates that finite substances have no intrinsic active power, since power requires an infallible and unconditional connection between volition and outcome.
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    • 2.Second causes, being contingent and dependent, can always be interrupted or overridden, meaning their putative effects remain genuinely contingent rather than necessitated.
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    • 3.A cause whose effect can fail without logical contradiction is, by the Leibnizian standard of sufficient reason, merely an occasion rather than a true productive cause.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Real causes necessarily produce their effects.
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    • 2.The existence of color, resistance, thought, or any other dependent thing at one moment does not necessarily entail that the like will exist at the next moment.
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    • 3.Second causes do not necessitate their effects.
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    Topics

    Divine AttributesCausation

    Connections

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    Modality & Possibility1 linked

    Related

    A cause whose effect can fail without logical contradiction is, by the Leibnizia...Hume's constant conjunction analysis shows that so-called 'necessary connections...If causal necessity is not observable between any two distinct events in nature,...Malebranche's occasionalism demonstrates that finite substances have no intrinsi...
    +5 moreShow less
    Only a being whose nature is identical with existence itself—whose essence entai...Real causes necessarily produce their effects.Second causes do not necessitate their effects.Second causes, being contingent and dependent, can always be interrupted or over...The existence of color, resistance, thought, or any other dependent thing at one...

    Similar

    So-called second causes are not real causes because real causes cannot...92%Second causes are not real causes because if they were sufficient to p...92%If second causes were real causes, they would be sufficient on their o...90%A real cause cannot produce effects in a time and place in which the c...85%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: edwards
    View source passageHide passage
    Edwards implicitly distinguishes between a real or true cause and a cause in the ordinary or “vulgar” sense. The latter is “that, after or upon the existence of which, or the existence of it after such a manner, the existence of another thing follows” (“The Mind,” no. 26; Edwards 1957–, vol. 6, 350). Vulgar causes aren't real causes, however. In the first place, so-called second causes are spatially or temporally distinct from their effects, and “no [real] cause can produce effects in a time and
    Extraction notes

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

    Details

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