Philosophy cannot answer its basic questions any old how; it must proceed in stages, in such a way that its own assertions and implicit assumptions are equally addressed. If a philosopher does not take account of the order of things in his mind or knowledge, h…
In the present chapter[1], we shall try and classify appearances in various ways (please refer to the Diagrams shown in the previous chapter, which provide a useful summaries and illustrations). The objects of knowledge, contents of consciousness, or appearances to cognition, include: first…
In the present chapter, we shall try and clarify the processes of conceptualization, i.e. how we develop abstract ideas from the data of experience. Many philosophers have previously attempted this difficult task, but have strayed into error or irrelevancy due to their failure to grasp all t…
Logic is usually presented for study as a static description and prescription of forms of proposition and arguments, so that we forget that it is essentially an activity, a psychic act. Even the three Laws of Thought have to be looked at in this perspective, to …
Causality refers to causal relations, i.e. the relations between causes and effects. This generic term has various, more specific meanings. It may refer to Causation, which is deterministic causality; or to Volition, which is (roughly put) indeterministic causality; or …
The strongest determination of causation, which we identified as the paradigm of causation, may be called complete and necessary causation. We shall now repeat the three constituent propositions of this form and their implications, all of which must be true …
Let us review how we have proceeded so far. We started with the paradigm of causation, namely, complete necessary causation. We then abstracted its constituent “determinations,” the complete and the necessary aspects of it, and by negation for…
In this chapter, my purpose is to break some additional ground, discussing certain outstanding issues in causation without attempting to exhaust them at this time.
The expression ‘law of causation’ can also be applied to each and every theorem we hav…
There is little mystery left as to how to theoretically define causation and how we get to establish it in practice. A mixture of epistemological and ontological issues is involved, which are resolved with relative ease. Causation in general may be expressed…
Every experience (concrete appearance – physical or mental percept, or intuition) is ‘evident’, in the sense that it is manifest before consciousness and that such appearance automatically gives it a minimum of credibility.
Concepts or theses (pro…
David Hume denies the very concept of causality – but in the same breath offers us an explanation of our belief in it, viz. that causal argument proceeds by association of ideas. I have criticized this claim elsewhere[1], but here wish to s…
Concepts and theories are hypothetical constructs. They cannot (for the most part) be proven (definitely, once and for all), but only repeatedly confirmed by experience. This is the positive side of adduction, presenting evidence in support of rational const…
Returning to logic – our insight here into the nature of negation can be construed to have formal consequences. The negative term is now seen to be a radically different kind of term, even though in common discourse it is made to behave like any other term.
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In the present essay, I would like to make a number of comments regarding Hume’s so-called problem of induction, or rather emphasize his many problems with induction. I am mindful of Hume in all my writings. In at least two places, I devote som…
Hume tried his best to do away with the science of induction by psychologizing our understanding of it. Of course, there is a psychology of induction, since humans have a psyche and induce. But Hume attempted to reduce induction to psychological mechan…
Among Kant’s fundamental errors was his assumption that empirical data is initially without unity, being a confused mass of myriad sensations, and that it needs to be united by rational means of some sort, before it can at all constitute an object of …
I have been dreaming of systematizing causal logic since my teens, I think, when I first studied works on logic and philosophy.
My first book, Future Logic (1990), mentions the manifest modal foundations of causality and indeed the tacit causal…
A term is, nowadays, said to have ‘existential import’ if it is considered to have existing referents; otherwise, it is said to be ‘empty’ or a ‘null class’. For examples, ‘men’ has existential import, whereas ‘dragons’ does not. This concept is considered orig…
Bacon, Francis. Novum Organum (1620). Trans. R. Ellis & James Spedding. London: Routledge, 1880 (date of publ. guessed, as not given).
Curtis, Helena and N. Sue Barnes. Invitation to Biology. 4th ed. New York: Worth, 1985.
Dogen. Enlightenment Unfolds: The Essential Teachings…
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