Thursday, June 15, 2017

Formal Causality and Adequate Causality

According to Spinoza, Adequate Causality is Proximate Causality comprehended in a definition, often characterized as an 'operational' definition.  The example that he offers is that of a Circle: "the figure described by any line whereof one end is fixed and the other free."  But, that definition unifies a sequence of motions.  Hence, it is also an example of Formal Causality.  Thus, his repudiation of Teleological Causality does not entail that all Causality in his system is Efficient, which complicates the classification of him as Determinist, insofar as Determinism is equated to Behaviorism.

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