Causation

Assertions on causality- i.e. what could be the cause of what? – are so ubiquitous in our everyday life that we pass them by unconsciously. Why does one thing become the cause of another? what makes a thing the cause of another thing? First, we must make a distinction between the concept of causality relation and that of the things to which this relation applies. What is the causality relation that links a cause with an effect? There arises, however, another question. What sort of entities should cause and effect be if they are to qualify as the two sides of this relation? In other words, what are causes and effects? This is the second question. The present article deals mainly with the first question and partly with the second one.