Below is a musing while I was finishing an essay.
I
propose to reconceive the traditional distinction between cause and effect
(efficient causation) given the assumption of two-way asymmetric causation.
Rather than conceive them as two kinds of things, the latter being dependent on
the former, we may distinguish them be saying that an efficient cause is an
extreme asymmetry. For instance, if the existence of a distant car is the
“cause” of the effect of my seeing a car, then it would be absurd to say that
my perception materially altered the car. This is a case of extreme asymmetry.
However, my experience of that car may lead me to seek it out and in fact
materially alter it, because my friend really needed a snowball on the windshield
… that happened to shatter the glass …. My point is that we need to stop
thinking of causation solely in terms of efficient or material causation, but
also in terms of the establishing of possibilities that may be realized in the
future. Hence, causation is not just about creating actual effects, but about
creating real possibilities. Experience alters the real possibilities for
action, i.e., an alteration in real relations, that correlates with but is not
reducible to a single physical change.
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