Следствие¶

Causality¶

A philosophical category denoting the necessary connections between phenomena, one of which (called cause) determines the other (called the effect, or consequence). There is a difference between the complete cause and the specific cause. The complete cause is the sum total of all the circumstances, the presence of which necessarily gives rise to the effect. The specific cause is the sum total of circumstances, the presence of which (with the presence of many other circumstances already present in the given situation even before the appearance of the effect and providing the conditions for the action of the cause) leads to the appearance of the effect.

The establishment of a complete cause is possible only in comparatively simple cases, and usually scientific investigation is directed towards the disclosure of the specific causes of the phenomenon. Another reason for this is that the most essential components of the complete cause in a given situation are united into the specific cause, and the other components are only the conditions for the action of this specific cause.

The problem of causality is the field of a fierce struggle between materialism and idealism. Materialism maintains the objectivity and universality of causality, regarding causal relations as relations between objects themselves, existing outside and independent of consciousness. Subjective idealism either denies causality altogether, seeing in it only the ordinary sequence of human sensations (see Hume), or, recognising causality as a necessary relation, considers that it is introduced into the world of phenomena by the cognising subject (the a priori character of causality-see Kant).

Objective idealism may recognise the existence of causality, independent from the cognising subject, but it sees its roots in the spirit, in the idea, in the concept, which it regards as independent of the subject. Dialectical materialism not only recognises the objectivity and universality of causality, it also rejects a simplified view of it, particularly the opposition between cause and effect which is characteristic of metaphysics, and regards them as the aspects of interaction by which the effect, determined by the cause, in turn influences the cause.

Causal relations are multiform, and it is impossible to reduce them, as metaphysical materialism did (for example, Laplacian determinism, which absolutised mechanical causality), to any single form. The development of contemporary science, rejecting the absolutisation of the early known forms of cause-effect relations, confirms, discloses their variety, deepens and enriches the dialectical and materialist understanding of causality.

The category of causality is one of the main categories of scientific investigation, which in the last analysis always leads to the discovery of the basic causal dependence. Where cognition achieves the level at which a strict quantitative analysis of the phenomena under study is possible, the causal relation is expressed in the form of functional dependence, which, however, does not make redundant the category of causality (see Determinism and Indeterminism).

Логическое следствие¶

Суждение (предложение, высказывание, формула), логически вытекающее (или, иначе, логически следующее) из посылок умозаключения (или из посылок вывода, состоящего из ряда умозаключений), т. е. выводимое из посылок на основе правил и законов логики.