By cause I mean the initial singularity, and by effect I mean the forms which it produces. To defend this I give an example of lighting a fire, the very act of doing so incorporates the existence of fire itself. Suppose it did not, then the existence of fire would not be contained in the attribute of the cause, and hence some attribute could only produce attribute of the same extent as proven in an earlier post. From this it is true that the cause could not produce an effect outside its initial margins, and hence the act of lighting a fire could not produce fire in itself. This is preposterous, and so it is proven that the essence of fire is contained in the attribute of its cause.
Recall our definition of a singularity: 'By singularity I mean the infinitely generalized state of a substance, from which infinite forms or particular versions may spring'
From this an interesting result is proven; a cause cannot be known from an effect.
Since we said a cause is the initial singularity and since a singularity produces infinite forms, then by knowing a finite amount of forms one only perceives of a finite portion of the singularity and hence not the total singularity itself. One will deny this and say that through induction we will come to know of the singularity. But if I asked the speaker to define what he means by induction, it would be impossible to accept it as a viable method without extending finity to infinity. Doing so requires preconceived judgement of infinity. Not only does it require this, but it must require preconceived judgement of infinity in the context of the singularity. In essence, it requires preconceived judgement of the singularity beforehand, but we defined this to not be the case. Hence the theorem is proven.
Giving a final example, take the case of the natural numbers. By knowing a few numbers one cannot come to know of all the numbers, which are contained in the singularity of the numerical countable infinite in the appropriate context. In this case however, I argue that we are equipped with the necessary knowledge beforehand. This hints us towards the context of said infinity, and suggests that it must be known to us a priori. How could this be the case if we have not come to know of a physical infinity? The only solution is that the the attribute of the infinity and hence the singularity is not contained in the physical realm and is hence immaterial.
You're argument is valid for the physical reality, but in a deeper sense,causality does not exist - there is only identity. There is no cause of anything. In reality, everything is already complete. It is obvious that nothing is the cause of anything else as that would require a dualistic separation in time and space, which is impossible.
ReplyDeleteThe argument generalises to higher structures, to say that only identity exists after an indexed point in the structural hierarchy is to say that all states of existence are equivalent. This would necessitate that greater perception, i.e. higher existence axioms be void; but from such a perception can be constructed a conception (see my article on Skolem's Paradox) which embodies the idea of higher structure. An ontological tautology indeed. I am in the process of formulating a theory of the fundamental dichotomy between perception and conception which will allow a more intricate argument in arguing for intrinsic meaning in substance. It is also important to note that this idea of cause and effect is independent of time, hence the necessity to resort to singularity-form decomposition. The cause of something is the initial singularity which it stems from, the cause of a particular thought is our mind as an example. Time does not come into this. I agree with your comment on dualistic separation; it is such that separation of reality in disjoint components is fundamentally flawed - physical reality is still a conception in our mind. This is analogous to the idea of a transitive subset, and this importance of transitivity is why the definition of an ordinal number stipulates that property with well ordering; so that a well founded infinite hierarchy is constructed.
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