William Hamilton on causation

The nineteenth-century British Philosopher William Hamilton defended his law of the conditioned in part on the strength of its ability to offer a satisfactory theory of causation. He maintained that our belief that every event is the outcome of some cause and the source of some further effect find...

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Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2015
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collection OXFORD
description The nineteenth-century British Philosopher William Hamilton defended his law of the conditioned in part on the strength of its ability to offer a satisfactory theory of causation. He maintained that our belief that every event is the outcome of some cause and the source of some further effect finds its ground, not in the world, but rather in the limitations of our own minds; specifically in our inability to conceive of either absolute commencement of being or its absolute annihilation. While radically unlike modern conceptions of causality, Hamilton’s account is better able to defend itself than either its critics or its neglect might suggest, while its modest and negative formulation recommends it to those of a sceptical tendency.
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spelling oxford-uuid:aaf33611-9dac-4f6f-8718-75daf490c4aa2022-03-27T03:18:37ZWilliam Hamilton on causationJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:aaf33611-9dac-4f6f-8718-75daf490c4aaEnglishORA Deposit2015The nineteenth-century British Philosopher William Hamilton defended his law of the conditioned in part on the strength of its ability to offer a satisfactory theory of causation. He maintained that our belief that every event is the outcome of some cause and the source of some further effect finds its ground, not in the world, but rather in the limitations of our own minds; specifically in our inability to conceive of either absolute commencement of being or its absolute annihilation. While radically unlike modern conceptions of causality, Hamilton’s account is better able to defend itself than either its critics or its neglect might suggest, while its modest and negative formulation recommends it to those of a sceptical tendency.
spellingShingle William Hamilton on causation
title William Hamilton on causation
title_full William Hamilton on causation
title_fullStr William Hamilton on causation
title_full_unstemmed William Hamilton on causation
title_short William Hamilton on causation
title_sort william hamilton on causation