Causality…

Estudia: Hi Phi. Sorry I couldn’t wait, but now I’m back and want to hear how about this… what’d you call it, a natural law?

Philo: Oh, let me see. Yes we were ready to talk about the law of causality, weren’t we? I was saying that because you have understood explicitly the concepts of entity, identity and action, you, like a child does implicitly, can arrive at the law of causality.

Estudia: How does a kid do that?

Philo: Well, the child needs to observe a fact that is always present — an omnipresent fact, if you will. Things only act in a certain way.

Estudia: That’s obvious isn’t it?

Philo: Maybe to you now, but think back to when you were a child. Maybe you had a stuffed animal and a real pet dog. One would move and play with you, the other had to be moved and didn’t lick your face. What about that book? Did it make noises like the bell in your crib? Did the bars of the crib bend and move like the soft pillow under your head?

Estudia: No, of course not. Things act in definite ways and only in those ways. The bars in the crib were a real problem for me. I wanted them to move so many times, but I soon learned to climb over them and get to things.

Philo: Every entity has a specific nature. That’s what the child learns and knows implicitly. As adults we can state this fact explicitly. First we know that actions don’t stand alone. Action is action of an entity. That’s the only way to view an action. You have got to view the entity performing the action. Now we said that A is A, so every entity must have an identity which means it must act according to its nature. The action is thus caused by the entities nature. The nature of the entity necessitates the action. It can’t be any other way.

Estudia: Couldn’t an entity act strange sometime and do something differently?

Philo: It can’t act apart form its nature. Why? Because we know that existence is identity. Separate a thing from its nature and it is nothing. Also, an entity can’t act against its nature because A is A and that means contradictions don’t exist. They are impossible anyway. An entity acting against its nature would definitely be a contradiction.

Estudia: I think I need an example. Things are what they are. So if a thing suddenly did something weird, like, say a water molecule started vibrating so it emitted Morris code and began talking to us that would violate this law of causality. I think that is self evident.

Philo: Why so?

Estudia: Well, every action has a cause because that is the nature of the entity that is acting. And every cause will give you the same effect because the same entity, under the same conditions, will perform the same action. Right?

Philo: Marvelous! This is the law of causality. The law of identity applied to actions.

Estudia: All actions are actions of entities. The action is caused by the entity. The type of action is caused by the nature of the entity that acts. The action is determined by the entity.

Philo: And if you add that a thing can’t act in contradiction to its nature you have it.

Estudia: That’s obvious.

Philo: I’m so glad you think so, because you have just validated the law of causality. Great philosophical analysis my dear. Let’s go have a beer and I’ll tell you about corollaries.
Estudia: They go well with beer?