Corollaries…

Estudia: Phi, now that you have validated the law of causality does that mean it is an axiom like existence, identity and consciousness?

Philo: No, no, no, not at all. Causality can be thought of as a corollary of identity. It is a self-evident implication of what we have already learned.

Estudia: That’s what a corollary is? A self-evident … what did you say?

Philo: A self-evident implication of our knowledge. It’s not an axiom because it depends on some antecedent information. Axioms do not. It’s not a theorem requiring a logical proof but rather, because it is self-evident it is more like an axiom. It is just another way of looking on something we already know. Once you grasp the meaning of the law of causality and understand the concepts of entity and identity then the truth of the law of causality follows immediately.

Estudia: It sure does, doesn’t it? Seems obvious now.

Philo: Lots of truths in philosophy are like that — corollaries of axioms. Objectivism, the philosophy of Ayn Rand, holds that the essence of metaphysics, which remember is the branch of philosophy that tries to explain what the universe is as a whole, the nature of everything if you will… the essence of metaphysics is the step by step development of the corollaries of the axiom existence exists.

Estudia: That’s it? Will it a makes a lot of sense to me so far. Existence is identity you said and so I guess every entity has a cause, right?

Philo: What about the universe? It just is. It is all that is so it doesn’t just come into being and it doesn’t just pass away. It may change but it is never ending. It just is. Some entities are not like that and they can be said to have a cause. But there coming into being or passing away is an action and that action is caused by entities in some process which we try to explain. The important idea is that all actions are caused by entities.

Estudia: I read that the moon was caused by a meteor hitting the earth. So the motion of the meteor caused a chuck of the earth to melt and squirt out and form a ball that moves around the earth. That is action causing action, I’d say.

Philo: Lots of philosophers would agree, but I think it was the meteor’s action, its motion, that caused it to strike the earth and melt the crust and cause it to splash up and out into orbit where that mass coalesced and formed a ball that was trapped in the orbit of the earth. The motion of the moon was not caused by the motion of the meteor directly without the meteor and the earth being there. Remember the law of causality which states that every action has a cause and that cause is the action of entities. If it has been a meteor made of water, the result would have been a lot different.

Estudia: Well, Menace would still ask, and he has asked me, who created the universe. So I guess he’d want to ask, who is responsible for the law of causality.

Philo: Causality is part of the fabric of reality. You can’t separate them — just like you can’t separate an action from an entity. To be something is that something has to act according to it nature. You can’t ask who or what is responsible. The answer is that existence exists, so get over it. There is a lot to learn about existence, but at least you know that it is made up of entities with a specific nature that only act certain ways. That’s their nature, their identity to be precise. You don’t have to say we would have chaos if someone didn’t apply order to the universe. You don’t have to hope for a rare chance to change reality. The world is the way it is because the actions of entities are what they are and they can’t be any other way. That’s reality.

Estudia: Hummm… well, what about when people prey and change the outcome. That shows that consciousness is more powerful then existence doesn’t it? Not that I believe these things, but lots of people do and prayer helps lots of people.

Philo: Too much, please! Next time. For now get the axioms and the law of causality straight in your mind. I’ll discuss consciousness later.

Estudia: OK, Chao.