Mind Association

Catenae Iterum Fractae

Author(s): Norwood Russell Hanson
Source: Mind, New Series, Vol. 67, No. 268 (Oct., 1958), pp. 546-547
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the Mind Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2251209
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 CATENAE ITERUM FRACTAE

IN the courseofhis passionate attack on the style,the thesis,and the

author of "Causal Chains " (MIND, lxiv. 255), Mr. David Bray-
brooke writes: " . . . it would be ridiculousto claim that scientists
... do not often confrontparticular questions to which chain-like
causal accounts are appropriate answers" (" Vincula Vindicata ",
in MIND, lxvi 262). Of course it would. It was never the
object of " Causal Chains " to suggestotherwise,-but only to urge
that even when such answers are given theirlogic is more complex
than meets the eye. Boyle, Newton, Faraday, Kelvin, Curie,
Millikan-they all confrontedquestions to which chain-likecausal
accounts were appropriate answers. And these were the sorts of
answerstheyactually gave. If Mr. Braybrookeimaginedit was my
purpose to deny that, he cannot have got the point of the passage
whichruns " Scientistslearn to spot the experimentalsteps that are
likely to give trouble. They 'strengthentheir weakest links'.
Any analogy that calls attentionto this correctivefeatureof experi-
ment is servingwell. The causal chain figurescores a mark here.
But why ? What some philosophershave failed to realize is that
experimentsare designedto be as chain-likeas possible " (op. cit., p.
308). And if it would be ridiculousto claim that scientistsnever
confrontsuch questions (a claim which " Causal Chains " never
made), it is also ridiculous to claim that scientistsnever confront
anythingbutsuch questions,a claim whichI cannot but understand
Mr. Braybrooketo be making. That is, where I argued that such
questions were not the only ones with which scientistsconcerned
themselves, and even where they do their answers usually are
logicallymorecomplexthan the language in whichtheyare expressed
can suggest-Mr. Braybrookeseems to urge that such questions are
the only ones Withwhich scientistsconcernthemselves,and that the
answersto those questionsare no morecomplicatedthan theyappear
at firstsight.
As to what scientistsdo, or do not do, however-perhaps we ought
to hear it directlyfromsome of them, ratherthan have Mr. Bray-
brookeas our interlocutor:
". . . the experimenterendeavorsto arrangethe experimentin such
a way that it is most sensitiveto one law and as insensitiveas
possibleto all othersthat play a part,namelyby dampeningthe
influence of suchcircumstancesas are governedby the latter...."
(Weyl, Philosophyof Mathematicsand Natural Science,p. 153.)
" Considera wheeledvehicleaccelerating on a levelroad. Whatis
thecauseofthismotion? Forthemagistrate it is thedriverin charge
of the vehicle; forthe engineerit is the enginewhichprovidesthe
propulsivepower;butfortheappliedmathematician it is theforward
thrustexertedby the road on the wheelsor tyres."(Temple,"The
Dynamics of the Pneumatic tyre", in Endeavor1956, p. 200.)
546
 CATENAE ITERUM FRACTAE 547
:In biology. . . whenwe speak of thecause of an event we are really
over-simplifying a complex situation ... The cause of an outbreak
of plague mnaybe regarded by the bacteriologistas the microbe he
findsin the blood of the victims, by the entomologistas the microbe-
carrying fleas that spread the disease, by the epidemiologist as the
rats that escaped from the ship and brought the infectioninto the
port." (Beveridge, The Art of ScientificInvestigation,2nd ed.)
I ask Mr. Braybrooke to compare these accounts with the key
passage in " Causal Chains " which runs: " The main reason for
referringto the cause of X at all is to explain X. Of course,there
are as many causes of X as there are explanations of X. Consider
how the cause of the pedestrian'sdeath mighthave been set out by a
physician,a lawyer, an automotive engineer, a town and country
planner... etc." (op. cit.,p. 293). Or have we all got it wrong? All
but Mr. Braybrooke?
NoRwoOD RUSSELL HANSON
Indiana University

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