Re: summary: causation in physics

["Dewey Dykstra, Jr." <dykstrad@EMAIL.BOISESTATE.EDU>]

>  There is a very simple syllogism:
>   Major premise:  a cause-and-effect relationship is asymmetric.
>   Causes strictly precede effects, and not vice versa.

I gather from the post that the argument is that force is not to be
considered a cause of acceleration.  Is this the case?

I'm wondering though....  When I think of cause I think of it as
simultaneous to effect.  When the cause stops effect stops.  If there is
not yet effect then there is not yet cause.  Hence, I do not understand the
quoted piece above.

Just wondering...

Dewey


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr.                 Phone: (208)426-3105
Professor of Physics                  Dept:  (208)426-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418      Fax: (208)426-4330
Boise State University            dykstrad@email.boisestate.edu
1910 University Drive                 Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570                  novice piper: GHB, Uilleann

"As a result of modern research in physics, the ambition and hope,
still cherished by most authorities of the last century, that physical
science could offer a photographic picture and true image of reality
had to be abandoned."  --M. Jammer in Concepts of Force, 1957.

"If what we regard as real depends on our theory, how can we make
reality the basis of our philosophy? ...But we cannot distinguish
what is real about the universe without a theory...it makes no sense
to ask if it corresponds to reality, because we do not know what
reality is independent of a theory."--S. Hawking in Black Holes
and Baby Universes, 1993.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++