Uncaused Causes and Caused Causes
- April 29th, 2011
- Posted in For Discussion . Intelligibility
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Chance is the greatest power in the universe. It is the great uncaused cause. There is no ultimate law or mind that determines that this or that must happen at such and such a time. Reality is created by accident. Even in a perfectly determined universe of material laws, there is no ultimate cause for what is. In the realm of human beings, or any conscious entity that makes an issue of itself, we are subject to uncaused causes. We are limited by them. We deify this power, anthropomorphise it and call it God or the gods or karma or the spirit of the universe. But there is no intention behind the uncaused cause. To be otherwise is to be a thinking thing, and that is one thing it cannot be.
There are caused causes. What does that mean? My typing fingers are not moving randomly. They are moved by intention. The intention itself is the beginning of the matter. There is no uncaused cause behind it. This is the greatest mystery of consciousness: not that we are aware, but that we will and do at once.
This is the true Manichean struggle of the cosmos, that between the uncaused cause and the caused cause. Tyche reigns over all and is worthy of devotion. She is the only God before whom man ought to tremble. But we are the children of Tyche. The uncaused cause has begotten a creature that can create, though she, strangely cannot. From the mindless comes mind. From accident comes intention. From intention comes creation. In creation we have a caused cause.
I like this paradox, here at the end:
“The uncaused cause has begotten a creature that can create, though she, strangely cannot.”
If I can try to run with it, maybe twist it: It seems at once to acknowledge our lack of responsibility for the fact or terms of our existence, and also to accept that we are responsible for our actions within existence, ie are free to create our own lives.
(If I were to keep going, I think I might start asking about ethics: if any intentional act at all is a form of creation, are there bad or negative acts/creations? Cosmically, to your personified Tyche, perhaps not, but maybe on the level of human intentionality and caused causes, there are…and here we circle back to responsibility, I suppose, and to your last post.)
Anyway, been enjoying the blog. Thanks.
It is a paradox. You’re right. And the responsibility is passive, I think. That’s one thing we don’t get to choose.
Regarding ethics, nothing in this construcion entails any right or wrong. Real freedom is ethically neutral. Ethical constraints don’t seem to obtain except in relation to other creatures, i.e. through convention. Fortunately, most humans are receptive to that. A caused cause is just an intentional act. It’s a brushstroke, if you will. A higher morality would be based on aesthetic rather than ethical norms, perhaps.
Thank you so much for the comments.