CAUSES AND CONDITIONS

A philosophical passage analysis on J.L Mackie's causation argument - (please click below for navigation)

[causesandconditions]

[causesandconditions]

A R G U M E N T

Many individuals would assume that a cause is simply the necessary and sufficient conditions that precede any and all occurrences. Such rationale is said to be false and requires modification in order to provide a satisfactory answer as to what exactly is a cause. Instead, the false misconception of cause is more fitting for a ‘condition’.

A condition on its own cannot be both necessary and sufficient. In order to be necessary, a condition must be the only condition able to produce a certain result. In order to be sufficient, a condition must be able to produce a certain result on its own. Instead, the relationship between certain positive and negative conditions consolidate to form a complex condition. The complex condition is sufficient for a certain event to occur but not necessary. While each individual condition within the complex condition is necessary for the formation of the complex condition but not sufficient.Conditions that harbour these characteristics are classified by Mackie's as INUS conditions for being insufficient and necessary but unnecessary and sufficient. Thus, the ‘cause’ that people often make reference to are actual conditions.