Annex X.19 – OBJECTUAL AND PROCESSUAL CAUSALITY

The operation with the two basic concepts of the objectual philosophy - objects and processes - makes that the meaning of some terms which are commonly used within the current scientific papers to be a different one, depending on the association with the one or other of these notions. This is also the case of the term known as causality. These are few excerpts from The Dictionary of Logics¹10: “Causality (causal connection) - relation between phenomena (events) characterized by the fact that a phenomenon (named cause) generates another phenomenon (named effect). For example, we may consider the physical law of the materials dilatation by means of heating. The heating is the cause of dilatation, and the dilatation is the effect of heating. The causality relation shall be displayed as follows: C(x,y) (“x is the cause of y”). A much debated issue in the causality theory is the ratio between the cause and effect throughout time. Is it the cause simultaneous with the effect or is there a temporal succession between the cause and effect? One may notice that the cause-phenomenon comes along with a series of circumstances. This set of circumstances which contains the cause shall be called complex cause. Let us consider C(c) as the complex cause. There are numerous complexes which are related to a specific cause: C₁(c), C₂(c), …, C_n(c), … Regardless of other reasons, it may be found that: a) the cause phenomenon occurs (is recorded) experimentally, before the occurrence of the effect phenomenon; b) the effect phenomenon occurs only after the generation of the cause phenomenon; c) at least some of the features belonging to the cause phenomenon may be produced apart from the effect phenomenon…” (quote ending).

If we shall interpret the terms of the above mentioned definition in terms of the objectual philosophy, the phenomenon notion is mainly referring to processes, more exactly to an agent process - the cause - which acts on an object, produces another process, an action, a state variation of the driven object - that is the effect. In this case, it is clear that we are dealing with a causality relation between the two processes, namely a relation of processual causality. But, both the cause and the effect processes are some variation state of specific objects: the agent and the driven object. The states of the two objects, which are also objects (obviously, abstract ones) are also maintained in a causality relation, because the state of the driven object is an effect of the action, and the state of the agent object is an effect of the reaction (if the reaction exists). The states of some objects which deployed or still deploy processual causality relations between their properties become objects which are under objectual causality relationships.

If we are taking into account the axiom I (axiom of the quantitative value), which postulates that any existential attribute is the result of a generating process (and vice-versa, any vanishing of the value of an existential attribute is the result of an annihilation process) we have the possibility of showing-up the causal bonds, because the collection of the existential attributes of an object or process (collection which makes-up the state of the object or process) is the result of a set of generating processes. This collection of generating processes makes-up a causal structure for the state at the present moment, state which is the effect of the causal structure.

Comment X.19.1: The term of “causal structure” which is used in this context is the equivalent of the “complex cause” term from the above-mentioned causality definition. The word “structure” was used because, in a graphical representation (for example, the flow chart on the production of a specific object), there is an invariant spatial distribution of the various stages (state-type objects) of the processes with invariant bonds deployed between them, therefore an S-type system.

Both the chains of successive processes and the branches with simultaneous processes belong to this structure, all these having a specific contribution to the effect state. There is always a causa proxima, the process which occurs right before the effect, this cause being analyzed by many philosophers¹11. It is worth noticing that in a causal chain, the absence of any process from this chain leads to the absence of the final effect (the objects and processes are conjointly associated, that is the equivalent of the function “AND” from the mathematical logics).

The introduction within the objectual philosophy of the unusual concepts of objectual and processual causality allows a correct understanding on the occurrence of some real or abstract objects from our surroundings and their categorization into the appropriate classes. For example, the children and the parents within a family are involved in a relation of objectual causality, because the children are a result (effect) of the previous reproduction, nursing and education processes performed by their parents.

Another example which is also taken from the biosystems field is represented by the hierarchical organisation of the individuals which belong to a group forced by circumstances to act together (packs, school groups, teams of professionals etc.). Within such a group, as a result of the numerous bilateral interaction processes deployed between its members (physical or intellectual confrontations, mutual evaluation of the activity results etc.) which occur in a long enough time interval, a “scale of values” is generated, in which each individual has its place, depending on the attribute quantity under evaluation which belongs to each one of them. Every bilateral interaction process settles a winner and a loser (another two objects which are in a relation of objectual causality). The member of the group which wins all the confrontations with the other members shall become an alpha member, and the one which loses all, shall be the omega member. The others shall be placed in intermediate positions within this hierarchy. This kind of attributes evaluation, by means of bilateral interactions, leads to an internal, relative evaluation of the property difference between the members of the same group (by resulting the internal distribution of the attribute differences on each group member), without the possibility of mentioning the absolute value of the property associated to each member. If an external evaluation is required, specific interactions between groups are needed or the attribute evaluation against an external reference considered to be absolute (impartial evaluator) is also required.

All these hierarchical structures are abstract objects which are the result of a causal structure (a long series of simultaneous and/or successive processes) which produce the occurrence (generation) of a value order of the objects involved in the interactive processes from the causal structure.

Comment X.19.2: As we have previously mentioned, the objectual causality relations are mostly visible in the social media. Within these media, some attribute differences may be found between two individuals (fame, fortune, education level, look, intelligence etc.), differences which are exclusively due to some previous processes (therefore, to a processual causality). As a result of these differentiated previous processes, a “sedimentation” of the society’s individuals in the so-called “layers” or social “classes” takes place, which are nothing but a set of individuals with a quasi-even distribution of a specific property, and these individuals are involved in the same type of causal relations against another set (other layer), to which the same property, also quasi-evenly distributed, is very different in terms of quantity.

The various organization levels of the material systems are also involved in objectual causality relations, because the systems with a high organization level are a result (effect) of a formation (synthesis) process of the system, from the systems with an inferior structure (subject which was also approached in chapter 1).

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INDEX

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