Confusion about cause in an explanation
- JamesOfSeattle
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Re: Confusion about cause in an explanation
Regarding the OP, I have to assume the author thought he was answering the question that he was asking. What basis do you have to dispute him? Or are you just saying that it is not a good answer to the question asked?
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Re: Confusion about cause in an explanation
I mean, if we are answering a single question, with fairly evident limitations, we have no justification to rush to a final cause or an ultimate cause in order to explain that one, limited event or fact that's being explained. We have no justification to leap over a chain of three to 300 intermediate causes (depending on world-view, degree of congruence in the assumptions and amount of detail required for the particular inquiry).
Why do children ask questions?
Lots and lots and lots of reasons.
Going straight to the reason for the existence of the human race doesn't seem appropriate.
-- Updated January 3rd, 2017, 11:28 pm to add the following --
Also, given
the the effect is explained by the cause
as the criterion for intrinsic explanation, I think he's far over-reached in this example.
"Children ask questions because they are curious".
would be intrinsic, if we assume that curiosity is an attribute of children generally
"Children ask questions because they don't know enough."
would also be true and intrinsic, given that children are immature by definition.
In fairness, I'm being persnickety (holding us to a higher than usual standard of rigor) because we have a young person here, who may be risking the disapprobation of his mentor(s) by undisciplined thinking or sloppy use of language.
- JamesOfSeattle
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Re: Confusion about cause in an explanation
For what it's worth, this discussion has pushed me toward the idea of augmenting Aristotle's four causes with a fifth cause: natural cause. I still wish to suggest that final causes are a sub-class of natural causes. Let me know if you want to take that to another thread.
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Re: Confusion about cause in an explanation
In fact, I'm not into textbook or formal argumentation at all.
I just like clear, sensible and proportional relationships in statements.
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