Causality in western and eastern philosophies

• Authors: Teuchmann Romuald

Title variants

PL

Przyczynowość w filozofii Zachodu i Wschodu

• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The general outline of the issue of causality in Western and Eastern philosophies shows that any concept of causality has always depended on the way of understanding reality. In classical European metaphysics, causes explained the existence of being, but from the time of Galileo this concept came to be used only to explain phenomena and events taking place in the experienced world. Eventually, the concept of a cause became more and more restricted, and even discredited. But there are also attempts to rehabilitate the importance of causation, especially in the research of those who try to refer to classical metaphysics. Of course, we cannot forget phenomenological research, in which causality belongs to the system of the constituted, intentional world and makes sense only within it. This dependence of the known object on the subject of knowledge is particularly evident in the philosophy of the East, mainly in the philosophy of India. All the disputes within this tradition have concerned the question whether the effect preexists within the cause or not. Accordingly, two opposing views have formed: satkāryavāda and asatkāryavāda. The first one (satkāryavāda) represents Sankya and Advaita Vedanta, the second (asatkāryavāda) – the system of Nyaya.

Keywords

EN

causality; types of causes; principle of sufficient reason; satkāryavāda; asatkāryavāda

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Umiejętności / Uniwersytet Jagielloński
• Journal: Kwartalnik Filozoficzny
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 48
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 5-28

Contributors

author

Teuchmann Romuald

• Instytut Filozofii i Socjologii PAN, Nowy Świat 72, 00-330 Warszawa, Poland