On causation : with a chapter on belief / by Charles A. Mercier.
- Charles Arthur Mercier
- Date:
- 1916
Licence: In copyright
Credit: On causation : with a chapter on belief / by Charles A. Mercier. Source: Wellcome Collection.
45/248 page 29
Licence: In copyright
Credit: On causation : with a chapter on belief / by Charles A. Mercier. Source: Wellcome Collection.
![rest of us it ceased to exist a hundred years ago. Causation, then, is a relation of implication between such existing sub¬ stances as the battle of Waterloo and a flash of lightning ; but what is a relation of implication ? Here again Dr. McT aggart comes to the rescue with a definition. A relation of implica¬ tion is a relation between two propositions, P and Q, such that P implies Q, when, if I know P to be true, I am justified by that alone in asserting that Q is true, and, if I know Q to be false, I am justified by that alone in asserting P to be false. So far, so good, but still we are a long way fiom attaining a clear idea of causation ; but Dr. McTaggart is not done yet. < Strictly speaking,’ he says, ‘ implication is a relation between propositions or truths [is a proposition, then, necessaiily true?] and not between events. But it is convenient to extend our use of it, so as to say that if one proposition implies another, then the event asserted in the first implies the event asserted in the second [but how if neither of them asserts an event?]. It is in this sense that the cause implies the effect causes it, in fact. The jump from propositions to events is a bit start¬ ling to those who are not accustomed to the proper meaning of realities and substances, but interpreting these expressions to the best of my ability, I gather that when we say the cause implies the effect, we mean that if the cause is true the effect is true, and if the effect is false the cause is false. . But what on earth is the meaning of a cause or an effect being true or false ? It does not appear that by a true cause Dr. McTaggart means the causa vera of the Schools, but what he does mean I cannot conjecture ; and supposing this difficulty to be cleared up, what is the meaning of a false effect ? Is it an effect that never happens ? or is it an effect that is wrongly attributed to a certain cause? or is it something else? It is to be re¬ gretted that Dr. McTaggart has not supplemented his definitions with others, explaining the meaning of these terms. In this difficulty the only practicable expedient is to clothe the expres¬ sion in circumstances—to apply the general rule to an individual case. . , I take, therefore, two propositions, Brutus killed C(zsai, and Brutus and Ccesav were contemporaries, which stand in a rela-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29816105_0045.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
