Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Causality" in English language version.
Multiple causation has been defended, and even taken for granted, by the most diverse thinkers [...] simple causation is suspected of artificiality on account of its very simplicity. Granted, the assignment of a single cause (or effect) to a set of effects (or causes) may be a superficial, nonilluminating hypothesis. But so is usually the hypothesis of simple causation. Why should we remain satisfied with statements of causation, instead of attempting to go beyond the first simple relation that is found?
{{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)Multiple causation has been defended, and even taken for granted, by the most diverse thinkers [...] simple causation is suspected of artificiality on account of its very simplicity. Granted, the assignment of a single cause (or effect) to a set of effects (or causes) may be a superficial, nonilluminating hypothesis. But so is usually the hypothesis of simple causation. Why should we remain satisfied with statements of causation, instead of attempting to go beyond the first simple relation that is found?
{{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)Multiple causation has been defended, and even taken for granted, by the most diverse thinkers [...] simple causation is suspected of artificiality on account of its very simplicity. Granted, the assignment of a single cause (or effect) to a set of effects (or causes) may be a superficial, nonilluminating hypothesis. But so is usually the hypothesis of simple causation. Why should we remain satisfied with statements of causation, instead of attempting to go beyond the first simple relation that is found?
{{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)In the Physics, Aristotle builds on his general account of the four causes by developing explanatory principles that are specific to the study of nature. Here Aristotle insists that all four modes of explanation are called for in the study of natural phenomena, and that the job of "the student of nature is to bring the why-question back to them all in the way appropriate to the science of nature" (Phys. 198 a 21–23). The best way to understand this methodological recommendation is the following: the science of nature is concerned with natural bodies insofar as they are subject to change, and the job of the student of nature is to provide the explanation of their natural change. The factors that are involved in the explanation of natural change turn out to be matter, form, that which produces the change, and the end of this change. Note that Aristotle does not say that all four explanatory factors are involved in the explanation of each and every instance of natural change. Rather, he says that an adequate explanation of natural change may involve a reference to all of them. Aristotle goes on by adding a specification on his doctrine of the four causes: the form and the end often coincide, and they are formally the same as that which produces the change (Phys. 198 a 23–26).