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    Carmelics

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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Perspectives
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    42
    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that To the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Superficially identical effects can arise from fundamentally distinct causal mechanisms, as multiple realizability in philosophy of mind demonstrates.
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    • 2.Equifinality—different causal paths converging on identical outcomes—is empirically attested in biology, thermodynamics, and developmental systems.
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    • 3.Mandating same-cause inference therefore risks systematically suppressing the discovery of causally distinct but phenomenally similar processes.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Hume's own regularity theory of causation entails that causal identity is established by constant conjunction, not by resemblance of effects alone.
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    • 2.Newton's Rule III conflates the epistemic heuristic of parsimony with a metaphysical claim about causal sameness, a move Whewell's consilience framework explicitly rejects.
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    • 3.Without independent criteria for individuating 'same effects,' the rule is circular: cause-sameness and effect-sameness mutually presuppose each other.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.We should admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.
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    • 2.Parsimony in causal explanation requires assigning the same causes to the same effects wherever possible.
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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.