Causality

Hegel (Logic of Essence, category of actuality)

Causality is the activity of substance: cause effects effect. Hegel develops three stages: (1) formal causality --- abstract relation A→B, (Ch. 2) finite causality --- cause passes into effect and partly vanishes (match ignites candle), (3) infinite causality --- cause preserves itself in its effect (sun warms earth). The effect is not passive, but reacts to the cause (reaction). This leads to interaction. Hegel's answer to Hume's skepticism about causality: causality is not mere habit, but the structure of mediation of reality itself.

Origin

Aristotle: four causes (*causa materialis, formalis, efficiens, finalis*). Hume: causality is only habitual expectation. Kant: causality as a category of the understanding. Hegel: causality as an objective structure of self-mediating reality.

In Hegel

Enc. §153-154; SL Vol. 2, Actuality

Cross-references

Substance · Reciprocal Action · Necessity · Ground · Actuality · Logic of Essence