Kant’s Metaphysics#

The nature of cause and effect is a concern of the subject known as metaphysics. Kant primarily discusses the concept of cause and effect in the Division One - Book II - Section III - 3.B. Second analogy of his Critique of Pure Reason:

Law of Causality - 1st Version

Everything that happens (begins to be) presupposes something which it follows in accordance with a rule.

Law of Causality - 2nd Version

All alterations occur in accordance with the law of the connection of cause and effect.

He thought that time and space were notions prior to human understanding of the progress or evolution of the world, and he also recognized the priority of causality. But he did not have the understanding that came with knowledge of Minkowski geometry and the Special Theory of Relativity, that the notion of causality can be used as a prior foundation from which to construct notions of time and space¹

Aristotle’s (Western) Philosophy#

In Book II, Chapter 3 of his work Physics, Aristotle considered in how many senses “because” may answer the question “why”. He believes understanding a thing means knowing its “how and why” and gave the following rough classification of the causal determinants of things:

The meaning of physics in Aristotle

Aristotle’s Physics deals with the most general (philosophical) principles of natural or moving things, both living and non-living, rather than physical theories (in the modern sense) or investigations of the particular contents of the universe. The chief purpose of the work is to discover the principles and causes of change, or movement, or motion, especially that of natural wholes (mostly living things, but also inanimate wholes like the cosmos).²

Therefore the “process” in the discussion below is nothing but just the movement of a thing from one place to another, such as a vehicle head toward San Francisco from Los Angeles.

1. Material Cause - The existence of material for the generating process to start from. For example, bronze for the statue
2. Formal Cause - The material must receives the form (characteristics) of the type which conforms to its own definition
3. Efficient Cause - There must be something to initiate a process for change and cease the process when completed, i.e. changing from what it was to what it is to be. According to Lloyd, of the four causes, only this one is what is meant by the modern English word “cause” in ordinary speech¹.
4. Final Cause - The end or purpose of the process being initiated. For instance, people exercise for their health.

Often, several of the 4 coalesce one another to produce a single effect and the same cause is often alleged for its opposite effects. For instance if the pilot’s presence would have brought the ship safe to harbour, we say that he caused its wreck by his absence.

In addition, none of them are the causes or effects of others. For example, we may say that a man is in fine condition because he has been in training, or that he has been in training because of the good condition he expected as the result. But one is the cause as aim (Final Cause) and the other as initiating the process (Efficient Cause).

中国阴阳学说#

春秋战国末期，观星学有了很大的发展，对后世产生了很深远的影响。人们将星象分门别类，用星象“感应”来描述世间的种种现象 （Theory of causality）。其中 《吕氏春秋》 中的一段文字对此有代表性的描述:

《吕氏春秋》，有始览第一，应同篇

类固相召，气同则合，声比则应。鼓宫而宫动，鼓角而角动。平地注水，水流湿；均薪施火，火就燥；山云草莽，水云育林，旱云烟火， 雨云水波，无不皆类其所生以示人。故以龙致雨，以形逐影。师之所处，必生荆楚。福祸之所自来，众人以为命，安知其所？³

除此之外，世间万物亦可划分以阴阳、五行、以及 《易经》 中的八卦。

Buddhist Philosophy#

Karma (Sanskrit: कर्म) is the causality principle focusing on 1) causes, 2) actions, 3) effects, where it is the mind’s phenomena that guide the actions that the actor performs. Buddhism trains 3) the actor’s actions for continued and uncontrived virtuous outcomes aimed at reducing suffering. This follows the 4) Subject-verb-object structure¹

All the classic Buddhist schools teach Karma. “The law of karma is a special instance of the law of cause and effect, according to which all our actions of body, speech, and mind are causes and all our experiences are their effects.”¹

A common theme to theories of karma is its principle of causality. This relationship between karma and causality is a central motif in all schools of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain thought. One of the earliest associations of karma to causality occurs in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad verses 4.4.5 - 6:⁴

NOTE

Now as a man is like this or like that,

according as he acts and according as he behaves, so will he be;

a man of good acts will become good, a man of bad acts, bad;

he becomes pure by pure deeds, bad by bad deeds;

And here they say that a person consists of desires,

and as is his desire, so is his will;

and as is his will, so is his deed;

and whatever deed he does, that he will reap.

(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad)

TIP

“Karma” 的最好中文翻译是“业”（既“业障”的业）。玩原神的朋友， 这和纳西妲的元素战技“灭净三业”中的“业”是一个意思（三业 = Tri-Karma）