Causation refers to the fundamental nature of forces and energies both in science and in the mind whether or not the mind is identical to brain states, which is, itself, a metaphysical assumption based on nothing more than the usefulness of science.
What causes things to have force? What causes there to be energy at all? What causes existence rather than non-existence? If the mind is distinct from the brain, then what causes it? Is there are good reason to make a distinction?
To make claims about the deep causal nature of reality is to claim to have metaphysical knowledge rather than simply having scientific knowledge within a particular paradigm.
Very principally, we can not know the nature of the underlying causal scheme of reality because this scheme is not, principally, if it exists, observable.
And, if we do manage to peel back layers of reality in order to understand deeper causal relations, then we have done nothing to touch the noumenal world, if it exists, that is, by definition, not part of our observable world.
What causes mental events? Perhaps it is the mind that permeates all reality, but, this would be an assumption and not provable. How can mental events cause brain events?
Perhaps they are identical and perhaps they are simply correllates.
The possibility of dualism, pluralism, or something we do not understand, remains forever untouched by science. I am not saying that we drop scientific exploration, because science is a useful tool.
But, to think it is descriptive of some deep reality is to have no imagination or full grasp of the metaphysical landscape of possibility.
I use the following example to point to my central theme in several places, but, when virtual reality characters with artificial intelligence proclaim, on the computer screens before our eyes, "Yes, I now understand the nature of this place" we can not help but laugh.
We are like gods to them and perhaps we are no different, yet, we, like the artificial minds of computer games, have no really good reason to assume such things.
If there are gods, then, perhaps, they too are simple and arrogant creations of some greater being.
We and they must accept our limits in understanding whatever reality we find ourselves in and this is the duty of philosophy.
If I punch a wall and dent it, was it my fist that caused the dent? In a dream with the same experience, did my fist really dent the wall or did my mind create the whole scenario and, then, my mind dented the wall?
Perhaps the program we are all in causes the reaction but there is no actual transfer of force. Maybe science does describe an absolute but there is no way to test for such things.
