the theory of cause and effect

yes a theory

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• theory
• knowledge
• epistemology
• philosophy
• relativistic
• skepticism

[ksol000]

"Everything is a theory". Is that really the case, or is that only a theory of yours?

[pyrrho314]

it's a theory... now, do you have anything at all to contradict that theory... at all? It's a very strong theory, drawn from the fact that you have a material brain in a material world, also theories.

[ksol000]

Ok. So you agree that it is only a theory of yours that everything is a theory. But it's *not* a theory that I am having experiences right now. I'm definitely having experiences right now. So that totally disproves your theory that everything is a theory.

[pyrrho314]

it is a theory, for one. to have that be a knowledge statenment you will have to define what an experience IS, and what it means to have them, and what YOU are.

Saying "I have experiences" is true but does not pin down those definitions... and each of those definitions is still a theoretical statement on your part.

btw, I made a video on this today/yesterday.

[ksol000]

Why does it seem illogical to you? And why is it unintuitive to you? Are you thinking with your feelings and emotions rather than your reason?

[pyrrho314]

yes, and of course in the end we will agree to address the problems and not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I think you are also correct cause-effect does invoke framing that implies there are creators, final causes so to speak, and separates cause from effect in spite of the fact that the effect is also a cause, and so causes and effect are actually alike, not distinct.

You can dispose of it if you like and use conservation of energy, which leads to reactions over time as well.

[ultralaundrydetergen]

I am trying to say that the "theory of cause and effect" has some problems. It is very intuitive to say that everything that we see around us can only exist if something else is actually causing it. But you would then have to find a cause for that cause as well. This chain will go on forever. The idea of an infinite chain of cause and effects seems to be illogical and very unintuitive.

[pyrrho314]

the ramifications of this are interesting, because basically it invokes the idea that it's not enough for a river to run downhill, we do exactly the same thing... so the river must think it wants to run downhill, must have the illusion that it chooses to do so, rather than just do so directly.

[pyrrho314]

but the balance is that the sun "rising" is "nothing but an illusion"... even illusions have real phenomenon that explain them...

[ultralaundrydetergen]

Why can't you disprove the idea of cause and effect because it leads to an infinite chain of cause and effects?  There is no actual proof for this theory. Cause and effect is nothing more than an illusion.