| Meme-Trashing Party: Today: Cause and Effect... | 3 comments |
 28 Jun 2003 @ 19:49, by Max SandorOne of the most hideous, rampant & insane meme around is that of the human perception of "Cause and Effect". Buddha ranted about it 2,500 years ago, Nietzsche rubbed it into his readers' mind many times in various ways. This meme persists, even makes its home in the brains of people who claim to have a 'rational' approach to Life, Universe and Everything. Last time that I was bickering about it publicly was in 1998 in the 'Purple Notebook On How To Escape From This Universe' ('Manifestation in Dependence on Conditions' vs 'Cause and Effect') Nothing changed much since then; if anything, it's getting worse, it seems. Today I was reading a bit of Nietzsche for a change and found what I wanted to quote 5 years ago but couldn't find back then: "Cause and effect: such a duality will probably never exist. In truth we are faced by a continuum out of which we isolate a couple of pieces, just as we perceive a motion only as isolated points without really seeing it but then infer [a motion]. The suddenness with which many effects are standing out, misleading us; but it is only a suddenness for us. There are an infinite number of processes in this second of suddenness which elude us. An intellect that could see cause and effect as a continuum. and not see it in our way as arbitrary division and dismemberment, would reject the concept of cause and effect and deny all conditionality." Amen! mx Here is the German source code: "Ursache und Wirkung: eine solche Zweiheit gibt es wahrscheinlich nie - in Wahrheit steht ein Kontinuum vor uns, von dem wir ein paar Stücke isolieren; so wie wir eine Bewegung immer nur als isolierte Punkte wahrnehmen, also eigentlich nicht sehen, sondern erschließen. Die Plötzlichkeit, mit der sich viele Wirkungen abheben, führt uns irre; es ist aber nur eine Plötzlichkeit für uns. Es gibt eine unendliche Menge von Vorgängen in dieser Sekunde der Plötzlichkeit, die uns entgehen. Ein Intellekt, der Ursache und Wirkung als Kontinuum, nicht nach unserer Art als willkürliches Zerteilt- und Zerstücktsein sähe, der den Fluß des Geschehens sähe - würde den Begriff Ursache und Wirkung und alle Bedingtheit leugnen". Full article here at the : Mauthner Gesellschaft site. An excellent collection Nietzsche quotes in English (reasonably translated) is at the The perspectives of Nietzsche Also excellent (in German): The Nietzsche Channel and Der Philosoph mit der Peitsche (from where I ripped his picture) |