Quotes About Causality

The eminent biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy wrote in a masterful essay (1955) that evolution would soon have weeded man out if his cultural categories of space, time, causality, etc., were entirely deceptive.

A butterfly could flap its wings and set molecules of air in motion, which would move other molecules of air, in turn moving more molecules of air— eventually capable of starting a hurricane on the other side of the planet.

Whenever known and sufficient causes are available, it is anti-scientific to discard them in favour of a hypothesis that can never be verified.

Of causes, some are complete and primary, others auxiliary and proximate. Hence, when we say that all things come about through fate by antecedent causes, we do not mean this to be understood as 'by complete and primary causes,' but 'by auxiliary and proximate causes.'

The central problem of novel-writing is causality.

That one plant should be sown and another be produced cannot happen; whatever seed is sown, a plant of that kind even comes forth.

I believe that everything we think and feel and do produces a result and that we have to deal with that result - that result is then something that produces another result, so on and so forth, so yes, I do believe in causality.

By what criterion... can we distinguish among the numberless effects, that are also causes, and among the causes that may, for aught we can know, be also effects, - how can we distinguish which are the means and which are the ends?

A great book seeks to explain causality, not correlation. It works to point out the circumstances in which it works, and where it doesn't. And in so doing, it is broadly applicable.

In nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments; there are consequences.

There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments — there are consequences.

Let us remember that all actions, good, bad and indifferent, are the necessary children of conditions—that there is no chance in the natural world in which we live.

law of noncontradiction, the "law of causality," and "the basic reliability of sense perception," which, they contend, "no one denies … regularly and consistently,"22 and which, for them apparently, are more non-negotiably certain at the beginning of their quest for God and truth than God himself is.

In storytelling, logic is retroactive.

The only people who make any sense in the world are those who know that whatever happens to them has its roots in what they are.

Whenever one asks "Why?" in science, one actually means "How?". "Why?" is not really a sensible question in science because it usually implies purpose and, as anyone who has been the parent of a small child knows, one can keep on asking "Why?" forever, no matter what the answer to the previous question. Ultimately, the only way to end the conversation seems to be to say "Because!

Space and time emerge from the laws rather than providing an arena in which things happen.

We miss the effects of randomness in life because when we assess the world, we tend to see what we expect to see. We in effect define degree of talent by degree of success and then reinforce our feelings of causality by noting the correlation. That's why although there is sometimes little difference in ability between a wildly successful person and one who is not as successful, there is usually a big difference in how they are viewed.

Or as the Nobel laureate Max Born wrote, "Chance is a more fundamental conception than causality."3

As Lerner had predicted, the observers had a need to understand the situation in terms of cause and effect.

As a result, determinism is a poor model for the human experience. Or as the Nobel laureate Max Born wrote, "Chance is a more fundamental conception than causality.

We miss the effects of randomness in life because when we assess the world, we tend to see what we expect to see. We in effect define degree of talent by degree of success and then reinforce our feelings of causality by noting the correlation.

There is nothing in all nature without its reason, he wrote. If you know the reason, you do not need the experience.

All that happens is the cause of all that happens. Causes are numberless; the idea of a sole cause is an illusion.