In 1948 on the BBC, two British philosophers, Frederick Copleston and Bertrand Russell debated the cosmological argument. The core of the argument considers causality concerning the argument from contingency: if this causes that and there is a chain of causal sequence then where are we?
Science is based on the data from the senses and causality, and in modern science, the scientific project is lesser in that we seek the probability of causation, consistency, and uniformity in nature, rather than the absolute. Such causation is sufficient for most normal life including the sciences up until quantum physics, however, for philosophy and quantum science the matter of causation is of course explored more closely.
At some point, causation gives way to the logic that there is either endless causation or there is a first cause. The problem can be left at a supreme being and this conclusion is to leave the problem entirely as some do with religion. Taking it further, it might be that there is acausality. It can also be asked is there a dimension? In the same manner, the other question that arises concerns the essence of what is observed in the chain of causation.
It may be that there is causation but what is its essence? Is it chocolate here, and all the way down as Fr. Copleston suggests rhetorically? Finally, there is the presupposition that there is something rather than nothing. It may be that Nagarjuna slightly pulled back the veil concerning what is; and at the same time; concerning causality perhaps dependent origination predicated on interdependence might provide added light on the matter. Uncertainty goes a ways towards understanding, however, a further simplification to openness seems to me to be possible.
Layne Hartsell, MSc., Ph.D. is a research professor at the Asia Institute in Tokyo and Berlin. Former research professor at Sungkyunkwan University and the Advanced Institute for Nanotechnology and Sookmyung Women’s University in South Korea; at the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand; and researcher at the University of Virginia College of Medicine. He is a board member of the Korea IT Times.
