Reasons vs. Causes • Reasons tell us why we ought to believe (do) something. Causes tell us why we in fact do believe (do something). • Reasons are normative, causes are factual. • Reasons justify, causes explain.
(Caution: the terms here are imprecise, and we use terms such as ‘explanation’ or ‘reason’ in different ways than just outlined.)
Example. Suppose I say: “I believe that there are no triangles.� You say “Why do you believe that?� You can be either asking for the cause of my belief or (more likely in this case) for my reasons for believing it.
Suppose that you are interested in the explanation of why (as a matter of fact) I hold the belief. I may tell you (truthfully) that I hold this belief because my father told me so (perhaps kept saying so), so I kind of have come to hold the belief by default, as it were. In doing so I make no pretense to argue that this is a reason – I may in fact believe that my father holds many false beliefs. I am only claiming that as a matter of fact this is how I came to believe that there are no triangles. I’ve told you what the cause is, not what my reasons are.
Suppose that you are interested in the justification of my belief. You want to know why a(ny) rational person should think that there are no triangles. Prima facie, you might add, there are reasons to believe quite the contrary. Look around you – there are triangles everywhere. And, you might cinch your argument by drawing one like that: There is at least one triangle. This one (you point). And you can draw others . . . So, triangles exist! (Here is what I will say to you and what I will say to you will provide a reason for my believing that there are no triangles:) The problem is that no matter how perfect your triangle might appear, it never will conform to the standards of geometrical definition of a triangle. The sides of this triangle are not fragments of a straight line (if you look closely, the segments will turn out not to be “straight� at all but rugged. No matter how precise your instruments will be, when you get further and further down to the atomic level, you will have swarming electrons not straight lines! And if you sum the angles, they are not going to be exactly 180°.
The matter presented here is an interesting one. On one hand, both Bob and Jack had equal goals and equal intentions. But, only Jack was successful, but does that really make a difference? Should one be punished more simply because the other is a bad shot?
rational grounds, as in matters of passion, desired out come and choice. James claims that belief
The final cause: the end, that for the sake of which a thing is done
Causation is the relation between cause and effect, or the act of bringing about an effect, which may be an event, a state, or an object. The concept of causation has long been recognized as one of the fundamental philosophical importance. Hume called it the “cement of the universe”: causation is the relation that connects events and objects of this world in significant relationships. Further, causation is intimately related to explanation: to ask for an explanation of an event is, to ask for its cause. But according to Richard Taylor, causation is not that simple and discoverable relationship between states, processes and events. “What we want, then, is a conceptual analysis of this basic concept [causation] we so securely possess.”
...me explains in section V why we believe what we do not know to be true. We learn from experience. Beliefs that are unjustifiable are explained by, humans referring to customs or habit (Hume 28). When humans observe constant conjunction of events they form experience, they then get accustomed to the occurrence and associate them with each other. Hume has used the sun rising as an example before, humans experience the sun rising every morning they associate this with it being morning, and we believe that the sun will rise every morning but cannot prove that it will. Beliefs emerge from sentiments rather than reason. Hume says, “Custom, then, is the great guide of human life. It is that principle alone, which renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past” (Hume 29).
Reason can be defined as trying to understand God and the explanation behind his decisions. We can understand God, and reason gives us hope at understanding God through scripture. Reason is a tool that we can use to discern and interpret God’s word and to gain insight into God’s character and personality. The nature of God is eternal, omniscient, omnipresent, and supernatural, and reason provides a lens to look at the behavior of God through his nature. “God is not irrational,” and there is a reason behind everything that he does (WQL 5). Reason is a valuable tool for the Wesleyan Quadrilateral but reason does not stand
Cause and effect is a tool used to link happenings together and create some sort of explanation. Hume lists the “three principles of connexion among ideas” to show the different ways ideas can be associated with one another (14). The principles are resemblance, contiguity, and cause and effect. The focus of much of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding falls upon the third listed principle. In Section I, Hume emphasizes the need to uncover the truths about the human mind, even though the process may be strenuous and fatiguing. While the principle of cause and effect is something utilized so often, Hume claims that what we conclude through this process cannot be attributed to reason or understanding and instead must be attributed to custom of habit.
The notion of adequate cause that occurs in the definition above is defined as follows:
...ter may use several words that can be grouped together into one word. An example of this would be :
The first reason focuses on the belief of faith. The following passage is taken from the Bible. It has excellent meaning because it shows that everyone has faith. Having faith is the first sign that shows everyone believes in a religion. There are two good definitions of religion. The first is belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe. The second is a personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship. The passage shows that everyone has an institutionalized system that has belief. The passage is as follows, ?Everyone believes in something. No one can endure the stress and cares of life without faith in God. Atheists cannot prove there is no God. Pantheists cannot prove that everything is God. Pragmatists cannot prove that what will count for them in the future is what works for them now. Nor can agnostics prove that it is impossible to know one way or the other. Faith is unavoidable, even if we chose to believe only in ourselves. What is to be decided is what evidence we think is pertinent, how we are going to interpret that evidence, and who or what we are willing to believe in.? (Luke 16:16)(4) The passage is great proof that there is a God. It shows that everyone has faith. Faith is a big aspect in religion. With every religion, there is likely to be a single holy being, a god.
Is reason in opposition to faith? Reason gives the impression of being about logic, evidence, proving something without emotion. Yet, reason is merely forming a conclusion. Reason does not hav...
understood what was being said was that philosophy is the examination for beliefs and an
Whether someone's belief is true is not a prerequisite for belief. On the other hand, if something is actually known, then it categorically cannot be false. For example, if a person believes that a bridge is safe enough to support him, and attempts to cross it, but the bridge then collapses under his weight, it could be said that he believed that the bridge was safe but that his belief was mistaken. It would not be accurate to say that he knew that the bridge was safe, because plainly it was not. By contrast, if the bridge actually supported his weight, then he might say that he had believed that the bridge was safe, whereas now, after proving it to himself, he knows it was
reason that God really put us on this planet, if there is a real God.
In my Theory of Knowledge class, I learned that belief and truth can be very contrasting ideas. In my opinion, I can believe something that may not necessarily be true. However, there can also be truth that is impossible for me to believe. Belief is a mental state in which someone is confident in the existence of something, but may not necessarily have objective proof to support their claim. Truth is objective and public; it is eternal and unchanging without biast. People can believe in something different and can also all believe in the same idea. The overlap between truth and belief creates knowledge; therefore, an acquisition of knowledge will bring us further to what we believe to be a ‘truth’. Knowledge can be acquired in several ways, such as using emotion, reason and sense perception. These ways of knowing affect how we perceive reality, and help us create our beliefs.