Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-05T16:41:13.666Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The “Established Maxim” and Causal Chains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2022

A. David Kline
A. David Kline*
Affiliation:
Iowa State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

There is an ancient principle for which a number of writers on time and causation feel a certain allegiance. Bertrand Russell puts the idea with his characteristic flare for style: “… it seems strange—too strange to be accepted, in spite of bare logical possibility—that the cause, after existing placidly for some time, should suddenly explode into the effect, when it might just as well have done so at an earlier time, or have gone unchanged without producing its effect.” (Russell 1912, pp. 178-179). The maxim has a habit in the history of thought of lying unnoticed but once spotted leading its viewer to less than cautious theses. With maxim in hand, David Hume (1739, p. 76) concludes that simultaneous causation is impossible, Myles Brand (1980) concludes that every causal relation is one of simultaneity, Russell.(1912) declares that the very notion of causation is incoherent.

Type
Part II. Causation
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1982 , Issue 1: Volume One: Contributed Papers 1982 , 1982 , pp. 65 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1982

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

I would like to thank my colleague, William Robinson, for helping me think about this topic. A version of this paper was read at Marquette University.

References

Beauchamp, T.L. and Rosenberg, A. (1981). Hume and the Problem of Causation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brand, M. (1980). “Simultaneous Causation.” In Time and Cause. (Philosophical Studies Series in Philosophy. No. 19.) Edited by Inwagen, Peter van. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company. Pages 137–153.Google Scholar
Ducasse, C.J. (1969). Causation and the Types of Necessity. New York: Dover Publications Inc.Google Scholar
Fogelin, R.J. (1976). “Kant and Hume on Simultaneity of Causes and Effects.” Kantstudlen 67: 51–59.Google Scholar
Hume, D. (1739). A Treatise of Human Nature. London: John Noone. (As reprinted (ed.) L.A. Selby-Bigge. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1888.)Google Scholar
Kline, A.D. (1980). “Are There Cases of Simultaneous Causation?” In PSA 1980. Volume One. Edited by Asquith, P.D. and Giere, R.N.. East Lansing, Michigan: Philosophy of Science Association. Pages 292–301.Google Scholar
Munsat, S. (1971). “Hume's Argument That Causes Must Precede Their Effects.” Philosophical Studies 22: 21–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, B. (1912). “On the Notion of Cause.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 13: 1–26. (As reprinted in Russel. (1957). Pages 174-201.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, B. (1957). Mysticism and Logic. New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. (1966). Action and Purpose. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar