17 OCT 2021 by ideonexus

 Understanding Cause and Effect is Based on Experience

Were a man, such as Adam, created in the full vigor of understanding, without experience, he would never be able to infer motion in the second ball from the motion and impulse of the first. It is not anything that reason sees in the cause, which make us infer the effect. Such an inference, were it possible, would amount to a demonstration, as being founded merely on the comparison of ideas. But no inference from cause to effect amounts to a demonstration, as being founded merely on the compar...
Folksonomies: philosophy empiricism
Folksonomies: philosophy empiricism
  1  notes

Adam would not know that one billiard ball hitting another would cause a chain reaction.

03 SEP 2011 by ideonexus

 The Formation of Planets is Like a Snowball Fight

The formation of planets is like a gigantic snowball fight. The balls bounce off, break apart, or stick together, but in the end they are rolled up into one enormous ball, a planet-ball that has gathered up all the snowflakes in the surrounding area.
  1  notes

Eventually a planet ball has gathered up all the snowflakes in the surrounding area.