What proves causation?

Nothing. "cause and effect" are ultimately just empirical habit. Effectively a psychological comfort blanket for a race a precocious primates in a scary universe.
 
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Causation is concept used to describe reality. It is proven the same way that anything else about reality is proven ie either by pure empirical induction or rationalistic deduction from empirically derived "axioms".
 
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I would go one step farther and say causation is so self-evident that attempting to disprove it is contradictory
If you were to argue against causation, the very fact that you are being here and arguing has causes, therefore you are in a performative contradiction
 
XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG said:
I would go one step farther and say causation is so self-evident that attempting to disprove it is contradictory
If you were to argue against causation, the very fact that you are being here and arguing has causes, therefore you are in a performative contradiction
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This line of logic is only valid for proving that causation needs to exists it is not valid for proving that everything has a cause.
 
I scrolled past this thread a little too fast and accidentally misread the name of this board as "Divine Thoughts". Maybe DP needs a rebrand.
 
Divine Power said:
Is causation a fundamental feature of reality,
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I'd say it's fundamental in reality. But, humans can misconstruct the concept of causation.

Example: studies show that eating breakfast makes you sharper for the day. Marilyn ate breakfast, therefore her senses have improved during the day compared to Jean, who skipped breakfast. Eating breakfast is a causation for her sharper senses.
 
The Last Stand said:
Example: studies show that eating breakfast makes you sharper for the day. Marilyn ate breakfast, therefore her senses have improved during the day compared to Jean, who skipped breakfast. Eating breakfast is a causation for her sharper senses.
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But how would Marilyn have felt if she hadn't eaten breakfast that day?
(Sorry, couldn't resist)
 
I don't know, but I do have a solution for you:
Don't think about it.
Doesn't matter. Don't think about it. All it will do will plague you.
Maybe wrestle with this concept a little bit if you intend to go into a field where the inner workings of causation is important, like criminal defense.
Other than that, just leave it be, man. Theres other things to think about. I was thinking about rap music this morning.
 
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Cemetery Support said:
Other than that, just leave it be, man. Theres other things to think about. I was thinking about rap music this morning.
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Here's some causation for you. You listening to rap music increases your urge to enact violent crimes. True or false?
 
We Are The Witches said:
A fundamental feature? Maybe it's a bug.

You can "prove" causation like the fact of you existing in some form, is what allows you to feel what you're feeling/doing right now, you however cannot ultimately "prove" causation of the fire burning your hand.
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When you experience a burn from fire, the causal link between the fire and the burn is not arbitrary or accidental, but it's a predictable and testable relationship.
Have you heard of induction? It's obtaining knowledge from observing patterns. The fact that the same causal principles work so reliably demonstrates that causation is a fundamental feature of reality.
Plus, your subjective experience can't negate the objective, observable cause-and-effect relationships that are driving every physical interaction.
And if causality were merely a "bug", we wouldn't be able to build skyscrapers, develop processors, or even reliably predict that touching a flame will cause injury. Without causality, there is no safe and productive interaction with the world.
 
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XL xQgg?QcQCaTYDMjqoDnYpG said:
When you experience a burn from fire, the causal link between the fire and the burn is not arbitrary or accidental, but it's a predictable and testable relationship.
Have you heard of induction? It's obtaining knowledge from observing patterns. The fact that the same causal principles work so reliably demonstrates that causation is a fundamental feature of reality.
Plus, your subjective experience can't negate the objective, observable cause-and-effect relationships that are driving every physical interaction.
And if causality were merely a "bug", we wouldn't be able to build skyscrapers, develop processors, or even reliably predict that touching a flame will cause injury. Without causality, there is no safe and productive interaction with the world.
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The "bug" comment was just a joke.

Yeah, I know about induction, I'm just saying that you cannot ultimately prove that that is the case for the fire (for example), but we enter onto solipsism stuff, so it's pointless.
 
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