Single Idea 4542

[catalogued under 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 7. Eliminating causation]

Full Idea

Science has emptied the concept of causality of its content and retained it as a formula of an equation, in which it has become at bottom a matter of indifference on which side cause is placed and on which side effect.

Gist of Idea

Science has taken the meaning out of causation; cause and effect are two equal sides of an equation

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §551)

Book Reference

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Will to Power', ed/tr. Kaufmann,W /Hollingdate,R [Vintage 1968], p.296


A Reaction

What a perceptive remark in the nineteenth century. Science is notoriously uninterested in the direction of time, and such a symmetry seems to make the concept of causation redundant.