The Law of Cause and Effect

Chapter 1 What is the Law of Cause and Effect?

1. A philosophical overview of the law of cause and effect

There are two kinds of laws in our human world, namely natural laws and social laws, both of which have objectivity that is not transferred by human will, and human beings cannot arbitrarily change, create or eliminate natural laws, but human beings can use their own bodies and material tools to act on the objective world to cause certain changes in the natural world, and can purposefully trigger, regulate and control the process of physical objects, energy and information in nature, so that the results of the joint action of various objective laws can change in favor of people or maintain stability in favor of people.

Therefore, it can be seen that the laws of nature act as a natural force without the participation of human consciousness, and in the laws of society, there is a relationship between objective and subjective constraints, and there is also a relationship between subjective and objective constraints. The laws of nature can be repeated in exactly the same form as long as they have the same objective material conditions. Social laws are historical, and they have different manifestations in different societies, countries, nations, and different historical stages.

Then these laws of nature and society, or the laws that can be reproduced by man, and those that cannot be reproduced...... Whether there is an essential thing in these things, and the law of cause and effect contained in all of them, we will discuss the relevant issues in depth - that is, an overview of the law of cause and effect.

The law of cause and effect refers to the relationship between things. It means that any kind of phenomenon or thing must have its cause, that is, "things have a beginning and an end", and the ancient humanity "safety and danger are easy, good and bad are born together, and friction is alleviated, and gathering and scattering are successful." This name can be recorded, and the subtlety can be aspired". The trajectory of a person's life can be developed differently (different results) by different efforts (different causes). As the saying goes: "Seeking fame and fame, seeking profit and profit, seeking benevolence and benevolence, seeking righteousness and righteousness, wealth and fame, all can be successful, and it is up to people to get things as they wish", which is the secular understanding of this causal relationship.

The law of cause and effect is viewed from the perspective of dialectical materialism, that is, the materialist causality: any state of the universe is the result of the accumulation of the state of the universe before it, and any state of motion is the result of the accumulation of the state of motion before it. That is, what kind of cause corresponds to what kind of effect, which has the widest universality. Marxist philosophy believes that laws belong to the category of connections, and laws are the essential, inevitable, and stable connections inherent in the development of things themselves. The causal link is a necessary connection, and therefore it is not only a category, but also a law.

In religion, the law of cause and effect, also known as the "law of cause and effect", has three laws, namely:

1. Effect is born from cause: no cause can produce effect, and there must be a cause for effect. It is a time series, the cause must come first, the result can only come later, and the chronological order of the two cannot be reversed.

2. Matters to be reasoned: as the relationship between objective phenomena caused and caused, it exists objectively, does not depend on human will, and has its universal rationality in things. For example, there must be death in life, there must be dispersion in gathering, there must be separation in union, and there must be bad in success, this is the inevitable principle.

3. Existence and emptiness: Any thing that produces existence must arise according to the negation of the nature of reality, and the diversity of connections between objective things determines the complexity of causal connections.

In scientific research, time (t) is used to quantify causality, and if time is disturbed, the law of cause and effect must be disturbed.

For example, if you go back to ancient times and hurt an ancient person so that they can't reproduce, and it may be the common ancestor of many modern people, so that a whole group of people in modern society disappear, and that may include yourself. This contradicts the actual situation.

Using scientific research methods, causality can be divided into three different abstract models:

The first type: single causality, that is, a sequential causal relationship, where antecedents cause consequences;

Second, double causality, that is, cyclic causality, events are mutual causality;

The third type: multi-causality. That is, compound causality, cause and effect between multiple events;

2. The division of the law of cause and effect

1 The Law of Religious Cause and Effect

1.1.1 Overview of the Buddhist Law of Cause and Effect

Cause is a cause that can be created and produce a certain consequence, and an effect is the result of a certain cause. The theory of cause and effect was born from the Buddhist theory of dependent origination, which is the basis of the Buddhist theory of reincarnation and liberation, and with the development of Buddhism, different views on the theory of cause and effect have emerged.

The law of cause and effect points out: sow melons and get melons, and sow beans and get beans. Buddhism believes that everything can be a cause or an effect, and that there is no absolute cause and no absolute effect. Buddhism denies the cause and effect of the independent evolution and interweaving of all things in the world, but connects all cause and effect with karma so that the objective world is dependent on all beings and manifests.

Cause in the narrow sense refers to the direct cause or intrinsic cause of the effect, while the cause mainly refers to the co-cause or external indirect condition that produces the effect.

The cause and effect theory of Buddhism is the basis of its theory of reincarnation and liberation, and it is also the basis of its theory of life phenomena.

1.1.2 Development of the Buddhist Law of Cause and Effect

With the development of Buddhism, the Buddhist law of cause and effect has also been expressed in different ways:

1. In Theravada Buddhism, the concept of cause and effect is mainly the six causes, the four conditions, and the five effects. The six causes are proposed in the analysis of the various conditions or effects of the good and evil consequences of the three lifetimes, including the causes of being able to act, the causes of possession, the causes of the same, the corresponding causes, the pervasive causes, and the causes of different familiarity. The four causes are the causes of all the positive dharmas, and they are the classification of causes made when analyzing them from the perspective of the generation of ordinary effects, including causes, equal inferences, dependent conditions, and increasing dependent conditions. The five fruits are the fruits that are born of karma or proved by the power of the Dao, including unripe fruits, equal flow fruits, Shiyong fruits, increased fruits, and detached fruits.

2. The Madhyamaka school of Mahayana Buddhism, starting from its theoretical view of "emptiness", denies the existence of real cause and effect, and believes that cause is not real and effect is not real, thus denying the theory of cause and effect in cause and effect, and denying the existence of real "life". This fundamentally denies the causality of things.

3. The Yoga School of Mahayana Buddhism, starting from its theoretical "awareness", proposes the ten causes, the four conditions, and the five effects, and believes that the relationship between cause and effect has a certain degree of reality, and because "knowledge" is not real, there is no substantial difference between its concept of cause and effect and that of Madhyamaka.

1.1.3 Exploring the Origin of Buddhist Cause and Effect

Exploring the source of Buddhism cause and effect: cause is the main cause, fate is the helping cause, opportunity: through the "accumulation" meaning, the effect is the result. If there is no cause, it will not be fruitful, and if the opportunity is not invested, the cause will not be fruitful. Cause and effect, the abbreviation of cause and effect, the time is not right, the cause is not born, the cause is not caused, the fate is not part, and so on. The source of "machine": wood should be inspired by the karma of heaven and earth, the qi of heaven, the temperature of accumulating yang, the water of the earth, the dust of the soil, the accumulation of wood, the straight upward, the persistence of the "machine", the heaven and the earth, the noble cultivation of wood, and the opportunity to become a success. Therefore, it is said: "It's not that you don't report it, the time has not come", that is.

The most classic explanation of the meaning is "There is a cause, there must be an effect." It is a straightforward, simple and clear explanation of the nature of cause and effect in Buddhism.

"Karma and karma" can also be understood as "cause-fate-effect", a seed buried in the soil, if there is no water, nutrients and sunlight "fate", it may not be able to blossom and bear fruit.

This relationship of simultaneous and heterochronous coexistence is actually what Buddhism calls the relationship of cause and effect. For example, the seed is the cause, and the bud is the effect, because there is a seed first, and then there is the development of the bud, which is a cause and effect relationship that exists in different times. For example, if the teacher is the main one, then the teacher is the cause and the student is the effect, and if the student is the main one, then the student is the cause and the teacher is the effect. This is a causal relationship that coexists at the same time. This causal relationship is very intricate, and from one point of view, this cause produces this effect, but from another point of view, this cause produces another effect. In short, through the positive and negative sides, there is in fact no absolute cause, and certainly no absolute effect.

1.1.4 The secular understanding of the Buddhist law of cause and effect

The so-called karma comes from this, in the eyes of people who believe in Buddhism, the law of cause and effect is the natural law of the universe, this law is in the birth of the universe, if there is no law of cause and effect, the world will be a mess, the law of cause and effect is the law of movement of the material world, according to the law of movement, and this law is very powerful, it can lead to the manifestation of the state of the cycle of the three worlds, he will always be embodied in a matter of circulating existence, everything is in the law of cause and effect in motion.

Among Buddhists, the law of cause and effect embodies two main types of karma:

One is Ming Pao. That is, if you do good deeds, you will see that others appreciate you or get benefits, and if you do evil deeds, you will attract revenge or be sentenced by the state. These are the karma of actions that are visible to the eye;

The second type of karma is invisible retribution. It is also called invisible karma, which is mainly manifested in the state of mind in the heart, and there are evil thoughts in the heart. And if there are too many such evil thoughts, there will also be karma. This kind of karma is invisible and intangible, but in the eyes of Buddhists, it is a bad karma that is drawn and inspired by evil thoughts in the heart.

In the eyes of Buddhists, everything in the world is interconnected, and evil thoughts will lead to bad karma and bad luck. It leads to bad luck, no wealth and no luck, and the people and things that come into contact with are also bad people and bad things happen. A man with a good heart. With good thoughts and thoughts, the good side will be drawn and inspired, and this is the good karma. The people and things you come into contact with are also good signs, for example, in the eyes of Buddhists, some people have evil in their hearts. Do anything that lacks virtue. Most of the friends that this person comes into contact with and get along with are also bad people. This phenomenon is the material that is drawn and inspired by one's own good and disgusting thoughts, and all kinds of bad things will happen to oneself, and all kinds of bad things will happen to oneself, and all kinds of good karma will develop on the good side, and everything in the world is contained in this universal law of cause and effect, so an important point of self-restraint for Buddhists is not to harm others or even any external things.

1.2 The Law of Cause and Effect in Other Religions

The law of cause and effect is not a patent of Buddhism, it is an objective law, nor was it invented by Buddhism, but discovered by Buddhism and even other religions, Confucianism, Taoism, Brahmanism and even Christianity and Catholicism, but the way of expression and terminology are different. Causality is an objectively existing fact and law.

The law of cause and effect In religion, "cause" is the cause, "effect" is the effect, and "retribution" is the evolution process from cause to effect. Bad causes lead to bad results (of course, in practical application is far more than that), similar to the "from quantitative change to qualitative change" in modern scientific theory.

To form a causal relationship in religion, the whole process is like planting rice, which also requires time and conditions:

1. Sowing, that is, the cause. Take "plant a grain of millet in spring and harvest 10,000 seeds in autumn", among them, "spring seeding" is the cause, that is, you start to have an idea, and this idea begins to sprout, so it is like "a grain of millet" planted in the field.

2. Edge. That is, after this "grain of millet" is planted, it needs many factors to germinate, such as sunlight, water, nutrients, soil, etc., including not being eaten by pests. In real life, religious believers will find that many of their thoughts are not fruitful, and their explanation is that the conditions are not sufficient, but in fact, there is a result (no result is also a result), but the desired result is not achieved, which is "insufficient karma".

3. Time: Why doesn't causality in religion happen immediately? Obviously, if it is planted in the spring, it will not be sent out in the autumn, so why not in the spring and summer, because it takes a time to brew and mature, and in the cause and effect of religion is not enough, the fruit cannot be formed.

4. Result: The causal outcome of religion is often the scene of "ten thousand seeds harvested in autumn", which on the one hand illustrates the time, and on the other hand, it produces a comparison, from "one grain of corn" to "ten thousand seeds", obviously the cause and effect is formed, and it has expanded a lot, this is the correct "cause", and more correct "fruits" can be obtained; What about the wrong "cause"? Because it is contrary to common sense, it also receives a lot of interference, so it often does not bear the right "fruit", and even the wrong "fruit" will be affected, which is why the general religion advises believers to be good.

It can be seen that even within the framework of a strict law of cause and effect such as religion, the occurrence of causality requires conditions.

2. The law of environmental causality

Causality is a manifestation of the laws of objective things themselves. Marxism also expounds on the theory of causality, which explains the guiding significance of causality for our work, study, and ideological cultivation. First of all, we must know that the objective world is a unified whole that is universally connected, and through practical examples in life, people can find that all phenomena in the world are connected, and this connection forms the world into a unity. Causality is a kind of connection in the general connection of the objective world, which reflects the regularity of the motion of objective things, and a certain cause will inevitably produce a certain result, and a certain result will inevitably be produced by a certain cause. The so-called cause and effect are only for a particular event, and cannot be understood as absolute. Moreover, causality is not as simple as a straight chain, it is much more intricate, and an effect does not necessarily arise from only one cause, and the same cause does not necessarily produce the same result under different conditions. The causal relationship in the objective environment, that is, the law of environmental causality, can guide us to explore the causal relationship between things in objective phenomena, so that we can take the initiative in practice.

2.1 Spatial exploration in the law of environmental causality

According to the progress of science now, we are all in a four-dimensional universe, and the basic quantities of its judgment are four dimensions: length, width, height, and time. Cause and effect, as two interrelated events, must be described by the above four physical quantities when judging space.

However, this is not the point, the basic theory of the law of cause and effect is that when the observer changes, cause and effect can be reversed.

Let's do a thought experiment: A shoots and hits B, and B dies as a result, which is a typical but very simple causal model.

In the shooter's view, because he shot and shot, the result was B's death.

It seems to us that if we did not know in advance that this had happened, let alone that A had shot us, all we know is B's death.

So for us, it is obvious that B's death was the cause, and it is because of B's death that we know that A was shooting. Therefore, a shot is a fruit for us. Why do we always think of shooting as a cause and death as an effect? It is clear that in our minds, the subconscious mind thinks that the changes in time and space are uniform, and that the shooting must precede death. We often use the sequence of time as the basis for judging the cause and effect of space events. However, in fact, time can also be changed, it is only a fundamental quantity in the universe we live in, not a decisive physical quantity to measure the universe.

All the civilizations of the universe, the way they calculate time, usually start with the time of the Big Bang, and in our common sense we believe that everything that happens in the universe is simultaneous, the previous moment is the cause of the next moment, and the next moment is the effect of the previous moment. When you realize that the difference in observers can lead to the reversal of cause and effect. You should realize that the universe is not simultaneous, it is also relative.

Let's try an idea where we sit in a car and drive into the distance, which is the change of space over time on a relatively uniform time scale. Let's look at it another way, what if time changes with space? This is the theoretical basis of the theory of relativity, and it is also the theoretical basis of the law of cause and effect.

The time and space we live in are not the same as the time and space where aliens are 100,000 light-years away! The universe does not have simultaneity, and if it did, it would be impossible to travel long distances across the stars.

As I said before, the physical quantities that describe the four-dimensional universe are long, wide, high, and time are indispensable, and since time can measure cause and effect, why can't the spatial constituent elements such as length, width, and height work? Strictly speaking, there is no such distinction, but in the space-time we are in, the length, width, and height are relatively stable, and only time is a relative variable, so time has become the standard of measurement.

When we realize that something has happened, the time between us and the event is almost the same, why do we still think that cause and effect is true? That's because the time that elapsed between our ignorance and our observation of the event was too short! The spatial distance between us and the event is also too short to be short enough for the causal relativistic effect to occur.

Suppose an event occurs in two different time and space, and before that, a third party observes two different time and space from another perspective, and intervenes in or directs the development process of the event in the two time and space, then people's habitual environmental causal law will be changed, which is what Einstein called time and space travel, and its other consequence is that cause and effect are reversed. We'll look further into the temporal variation in the next section.

2.2 Time exploration in the law of environmental causality

If people can travel freely in time and space, especially when people move in time, if there is no corresponding change and expansion of time and space, then the inherent law of cause and effect of human beings will face systematic framework changes. So what is the effect of the inherent law of environmental causality on cause and effect when time travel occurs, and what theories do people have to improve this framework?!

1. Theory A–Fate (Ci

cula

Causatio

/Circular causality)

You try to go back in time to save someone's life, only to find that that person is still inevitably dead, or even worse, that your act of going back in time is the cause of his death. Since the act of going back to the past is the cause of this person's death, then if you don't go back, this person won't die, so you won't go back, this person won't die. But from another point of view, the act of "going back" may already be an inevitable change from the accumulation of "causes", and before this act, any conditions that would enable you to recognize this cycle of cause and effect are not met, and thus the "effects" that have already occurred in the past are triggered.

2. Theory B–Alte

ate U

ive

SE (Parallel Universe)

Go back in time and save someone's life, only to return to the present day to find that nothing has changed! In the "quantum theory", every possible probability could give rise to another universe with that chance, so there are many "parallel universes". When you go back in time and save that person's life, you just create another parallel universe in which this person is alive, but in your universe, this person is still dead. In Jet Li's film The O

This doesn't seem to be how parallel space is defined in E: after the death of the "I" of the other universe, the energy is divided equally by the other "I".

3. Theory C– Success (Grandfather Paradox)

If you go back in time and kill your great-grandfather, will you really succeed in killing him? If you succeed, you can't be born, and therefore you can't go back and kill him, so he won't die, and therefore you will be born......? And, if you do succeed, when you go back in time, you may find that your great-grandfather has become a different person – would you think this is your great-grandfather? Or when you go back in time, you've forgotten that you once killed your "great-grandfather"? This is a contradictory theory.

4. Theory D – Obse

ve

Effect

If you go back in time and succeed in changing history, only the time traveler will know how it differs before and after it changes. The paradox is, why aren't the travelers themselves affected? In this case, he may have become a stranger when he returns to a changed modern age, such as when he goes back in time to kill his great-grandfather, and when he returns to the present day, he finds that there is no record of his own existence in this world.

5. Theory E –Wo

ldli

e Agg

egate (World Line Collection)

There is an obvious irrational part of time travel itself: the law of conservation of energy mass. If a person uses a time machine to go back to the past time and space, there will be some more mass at this point in time in the past for no reason, and a certain amount of mass will be lost at this point in time, and as a result, the mass and energy of the universe between the two points in time will be more than the mass of a person (not to mention whether there is an extra amount of soul or something like that).

6. The Theory of Annihilation

In addition, there is a theory of extinction: for reality, people will ask, "According to some theories, the existence of time travel is plausible, but why have we never met people who come from the future?" ”

If there is enough time for human beings, or if the history of human beings is long enough, then it is very likely that human beings will eventually be able to master the technology of time and space travel back to affect history, in fact, there is no sign of this, why? There is a reason that human beings have died out before they have developed to the level of civilization that has mastered time and space travel technology; To make matters worse, any civilized species has perished before they have mastered the technology of time travel (I am afraid that any civilized species has an irresistible curiosity about history and wants to go and see for themselves); Perhaps, the mastery of this technology is too long a process, and there is not enough time for any of the continuing civilizations to complete it. Of course, there are many possibilities for the development of history, and perhaps in the future, human beings have already been in our history, but they have been treated as monsters or aliens. In modern times, nuclear threats from human beings themselves, as well as threats other than human behavior, such as planets hitting the earth and erupting large volcanoes, may turn humanity's dream of time and space travel into ashes at any time. This is a really frustrating statement, and there is no need to worry too much, I believe that no scientist working on time travel today will agree with this idea, otherwise there is no point in their future research.

These theories allow us to discover that, as long as we want to, there is no time travel theory that really breaks the laws of environmental causality as we currently know it, making it incompatible with the supplements of these theories.

2.3 The law of things in the law of environmental causality

There is a universal connection between all things in the world, and the causal connection is only one of the manifestations, and a very important point in scientific research is to be able to find the causal connection between things, because only by grasping the causal connection between things, can we recognize the law of the emergence and development of things.

To use causal logic for reasoning, we must not only stay at a single causal level, but must study the causes of things and the consequences from multiple perspectives. For example, analyzing different conclusions from different causal connections between things. Under normal circumstances, we must pay attention to causal analysis when reasoning about causality, and we need to pay attention to the following aspects:

1. Analyze the main and secondary causes. In many cases, there may be many reasons for an outcome, and we must analyze the main reasons, accurately grasp the main causes, and make logical reasoning through the most basic factors that cause the results.

The main cause in causal reasoning usually refers to the reason that is most closely related to the argument, and it may change according to the transformation of different arguments. Therefore, we should follow the various effective connections formed between the causes and arguments, and argue the results according to the main causes, while for the secondary causes, we must treat them differently according to the relationship formed between them and the arguments and the roles they play, and analyze the secondary causes that have an effect, and pass by the secondary causes that have no specific role. In this way, it is possible to ensure that the argumentation process is clearly prioritized, the points and aspects are combined, and the details are appropriate, and accurate results are obtained in concise reasoning.

2. Analyze the causes. In some cases, the causes can be divided into many levels, and there are phenomena that appear to be the cause of the effect, but are not, because there are causes behind them. For an effect with multiple causes, if you only stay at a single level and take this cause as the ultimate factor that triggers the effect, the argument will become relatively superficial, and it will be difficult to clarify the problem of analysis, and the results of such causal logical reasoning will inevitably have little convincing power. Therefore, when we encounter such a situation, we should conduct in-depth research, and we must not "stop at the beginning", but must find out the ultimate cause of the result as the fundamental purpose. Usually, the reasons that can be easily identified and known by everyone have very low certification power; And the more undiscovered the reason, the more it can explain the substance of the thing, and the more persuasive it will be.

3. Analyze the differences in causality. The fundamental purpose of causal analysis is to analyze the similarities and differences between cause and effect, which belongs to the specific requirements put forward by the category of dialectical logic. Different causes and the same result seem to be unrelated on the surface, but with the perspective of connection, with the deepening of the research, you will find that there are some commonalities behind these differences, so that you can avoid being confused by the superficial phenomena of things, and go directly into the essence of things.

It is also common for things to be interconnected with each other for the same cause to have different results. The reasons are the same, but because the conditions are different, the results may be different. There are many such phenomena in real life, for example, the same reform measures have different impacts on people in different environments and living conditions. When arguing for causality, it is sometimes necessary to conduct an in-depth analysis of the causal relationship that exists in different outcomes for the same cause, so as to ensure that the argument is sufficiently deepened.

Different things are cause and effect of each other, and they have the characteristics of dialectical logic. Different things can transform into each other under certain conditions. This phenomenon is very common. For example, in the natural world, the relationship of mutual cause and effect is prevalent in different things. When we analyze this relationship, we must clearly state that there is such a connection between different things, and we also need to indicate under what conditions will cause and effect be mutually transformed.

There must be a certain causal relationship between the emergence and development of anything. When this causal relationship is clarified, the truth of the connotation is naturally clarified, so that right and wrong can be clearly distinguished.

2.4 Characteristics of the law of environmental causality

1. Objectivity of causality. Causality is the relationship between the cause and the cause of objective phenomena, which exists objectively and does not depend on people's subjectivity.

2. Specificity of causality. Things are universally connected, and in order to understand individual phenomena, we must extract them from universal connections and examine them in isolation, one as a cause and the other as an effect.

3. Time series of causality. The cause must come first, and the effect can only come later, and the chronological order of the two cannot be reversed.

4. The conditional and concrete nature of causality, causality is specific and conditional. Therefore, when ascertaining the causal relationship, it is necessary to make a specific analysis based on the specific circumstances such as the time, place, and conditions of the act.

5. Complexity of causality. Dialectical materialism holds that the diversity of connections between objective things determines the complexity of causal connections.

2.5 Application of the law of environmental causality in other fields

1. Physics

In informal settings, physicists use the term causality in the same way that ordinary people use it. For example, in physical theory, some physicists would say that force causes motion (or acceleration). Strictly speaking, however, this is not a formal theory of the law of cause and effect. Causality is not implicit in the motion formula, but is assumed as an additional constraint that needs to be met, i.e., the cause always precedes the effect. This limitation has mathematical implications, such as the Kramer-Cloni relation.

The concept of cause in physics emerges in the context of information, which relates cause to its effect. Officially, it can be expected that information cannot be faster than the speed of light, otherwise, it is possible that in some frame of reference (Lorentz transform using special relativity) the observer can see the effect before the cause (i.e., the assumption that the law of cause and effect is violated).

The notion of cause also appears in the relative context of matter-energy flow (matter-energy flow is generally thought to be linked to the flow of information). For example, it is common to use the law of cause and effect to claim that the group speed of a wave (such as an electromagnetic wave) cannot exceed the speed of light.

2. Engineering

A causal system is one in which the output and internal state of the system depend on current and previous input values. If the system depends on future output values in addition to the current and past output values, the system is an acausal system, and if it only depends on future output values, it is an anti-causal system (a

ticausal system）。

3. Laws

According to legal theory, in order for the defendant to be held liable for a crime or tort, a legal causal link must be proved. In international commercial law, causation is also a key legal factor that must be proven in order to obtain relief. What is the connection between the act and the result that is considered to have a causal relationship? Generally, the "conditional relation" theory is adopted, that is, if there is no former A behavior, the latter B result will not occur, then A is the cause of B.

Example: A and B with a cerebral aneurysm have a tear due to the corner of the mouth, A clamps B's head under the armpit, B struggles a few times and then the cerebral blood vessel ruptures and bleeds to death. There is a causal relationship between A's actions and B's death (if A had not clamped B's head, B would not have struggled hard, and the cerebral blood vessel would not rupture and die at that time). As for A's responsibility for this result, it is necessary to consider whether it is intentional or negligent before the final decision can be made. In this case, A's conduct was not commensurate with intentional homicide or intentional injury, and he was not liable for intentional crimes, and if he was found to be negligent, the crime of negligence causing death could be established.

3. Subjective causal law

In human consciousness, it is natural to think that everything has a reason, and this reason can be understood by oneself if oneself makes unremitting efforts. What we need to do now is to extract this causal relationship in people's consciousness and form an expressible writing system, that is, the causal relationship that people understand in terms of causality, that is, the subjective causal law.

The law of cause and effect is a very common phenomenon in our lives, and only things that can be explained by the law of cause and effect can people understand it, and then grasp its laws to achieve the purpose of human subjective consciousness participation. If this presupposition is challenged, and there is a possibility that it will be proven, then there will be a major revolution in the human world, and the work that will need to be done by philosophers will be enormous, at least to give people basic comfort when they cannot fully understand it.

What we now recognize as causality (causality or causatio

) is an interaction between an event (i.e., "cause") and a second event (i.e., "effect"), where the latter event is considered to be the result of the previous event. Generally speaking, an event is the result of a combination of many causes, and the causes all occurred at an earlier point in time, and that event can be the cause of other events. So causality can also refer to the relationship between a series of factors (causes) and a phenomenon (effects).

The cause is usually related to the outcome, the process, the object, and other factors; There is much controversy over the description of its causal relationship. In it, we might as well summarize two key points, namely time and process.

When something happens, when people try to understand, they will naturally trace back to what happened before that, which is understandable, but people can't understand what happened after that has an impact on them, so people can only explain everything that happens in front of them with an intelligible law of cause and effect; In the same way, when one pursues the effect of what has happened before it, one can only deduce its process in a way that is understandable to man, so that the seemingly rigorous process of logic and reasoning of man arises; This kind of logic and reasoning can only be applied in accordance with the human mind, and without the understanding of man, everything will become meaningless, and man cannot develop beyond himself.

Under this kind of thinking of human beings, the problem of cause and effect has become describeable, but it has not become so simple, and there are still some places that require human beings to think more deeply, such as the beginning of all causes, people can use cause and effect to understand things abstractly, but a cause and effect without a beginning can also not be understood by human beings, so human beings must make necessary amends for this, and there are a series of theories and hypotheses about the problem of "beginning". Most people don't need an answer to this question, but they need to be able to understand, and even then it's not easy. People can try to look at the problem more comprehensively, the cause and effect of a thing is not only what he sees, there are many factors that a person can not fully grasp at one time, the concept of part and whole is understandable, so when something happens, we can understand that the factors that cause it to happen are complex, not only the simple factors that he sees, on this basis, people can try to understand that the causal relationship is not a linear relationship but more similar to an inclusion relationship, that is, the effect is contained in the cause. But this inclusion is extraordinarily complex, because causality itself is complex.

Since then, the causal relationship based on human subjectivity is at least less doubtful, and we can apply it abstractly to the things around us.

Chapter 2: The Inner Logic of Science

1. Science challenges everything

If science recognizes the law of cause and effect, it is better to say that science recognizes the status quo after it has been challenged, and the challenge will not stop.

In the summer of 1793, yellow fever was raging in Philadelphia, USA. Dr. Firth applied bodily fluids from patients to his wounds, eyes, and even oral administration to prove that contact infection was not the cause of the disease, which was widely believed in the medical community at the time. In 1900, Dr. Carroll voluntarily received mosquito bites and eventually died of yellow fever, proving that the Aedes mosquito was the culprit responsible for the spread of yellow fever.

When scientific research and events become a thing of the past, they are not only the history of science, but also literature. When human beings are still very ignorant of nature, they can only use their lives to explore knowledge and discover. Whether it is the polar exploration, the first exploration of chemistry by mankind after the end of the Middle Ages, or the discovery process of modern biomedicine, they are all full of dedication and sacrifice of life. It is the silent explorations of the sages that laid the foundation for everything about modern science that we are enjoying.

Every step of scientific progress moves people – the discovery of fluorine. As the smallest and most electronegative atom of halogen elements, fluorine is chemically super active, and can react violently with almost all metals and non-metals, bite down electrodes, tear containers, and no material can withstand its corrosion. qi

g/fu/sua

The toxicity is particularly terrifying, not only destroying the lungs and soft tissues after inhalation, but also penetrating into the body with the dexterity of small molecules as long as it touches the skin, and even burrows into the bones, damaging the nervous system, causing muscle paralysis and cardiac arrest.

In 1836, the Knox brothers of the Irish Academy of Sciences used pumice stones as containers to electrolyze silver fluoride and mercuric fluoride, and the elder brother almost died of poisoning, and the younger brother was bedridden for 3 years. In 1850, the Belgian chemist Rouillette died of inhaling too much hydrogen fluoride.

This dedication to science has always been one after the other.

The French chemist Moissant took on a big task, and after several tribulations and thrills, he finally captured this devil element in one fell swoop. He won France's first Nobel Prize in 1906, but died suddenly in Paris two months later at the age of 54.

There are countless early scientists who suffered from chemical experiments: Brewster, the inventor of the kaleidoscope, suffered for life because a chemical poison got into his eyes; Fu Langhefei, the discoverer of the absorption line of the solar spectrum, died at the age of 39 due to lead poisoning from the long-term development of glass lenses; Reuben, the discoverer of carbon-14, died of carbonyl chloride poisoning in an experimental accident......

Even biology has a secret murderous agenda. Pasteur, who created pasteurization, is also the inventor of the rabies vaccine for the benefit of all mankind. The rabies virus was so small that it could not be isolated and could only be extracted from the dog, and the elderly Pasteur and his assistants dragged the rabid dog out of its cage with a lasso, pressed it down on the test bench, and forcefully subdued its manic struggle, Pasteur bent down and held a thin glass tube into the dog's mouth with interlaced teeth, sucking the rabid dog saliva that was foaming at the white foam.

On the lab table, there is always a loaded revolver (qia

g）。 This is not for out-of-control mad dogs, but for colleagues who have been bitten and scratched by a mad dog or scratched by a scalpel. This cold decision was made by the test team, because rabies was completely incurable at the time, and the death would be extremely painful.

Later, the crazy Pasteur decided to use the rabies virus on himself to test the efficacy of the vaccine. It's shocking to think about it, what if it doesn't work out? It so happened that a child was bitten by a rabid dog, and Pasteur avoided a possible dilemma......

These scientists' actions are neither ordered by their superiors nor have the money to sit in them, but only to discover the truth of things...... Perhaps, only with this kind of calm and non-utilitarian desire for discovery, science, especially basic science, can break through one barrier after another and improve as a whole.

The discovery, creation, and even gradual accumulation of foundations in any science may have an unexpected effect on the world.

For example, Röntgen discovered X-rays, Einstein published the special theory of relativity, the Copenhagen School of quantum mechanics gradually deduced the army, while Schrödinger used the wave equation to achieve the same goal, Thomson discovered the electron, Voss and Crick discovered the DNA double helix, Oppenheimer proposed the concept of black holes, Capitsa discovered superfluids in low-temperature physics, and Salam discovered weak nucleon interactions...... These scientists, at the time, were only immersed in the euphoria of the discovery, never considering its secular role and the enormous economic benefits it would bring.

All of this is not following the law of cause and effect, but to some extent challenging the known law of cause and effect.

Therefore, in this era of rapid scientific and technological progress, we really need to cultivate a group of scientists who truly believe that knowledge is power and have no utilitarian intentions.

There is only one question for the development of any civilization, and that is whether it can make progress in this civilization itself and let mankind progress because of this civilization!

2. Modern scientific research

Modern Science (Scie

CE) is an orderly knowledge system based on testable explanations and subjective predictions of the form and organization of objective things under human subjective consciousness, and is artificially systematized and formulaicized knowledge.

According to people's understanding of objective things, science is artificially divided into several main parts, such as natural science, social science, thinking science, formal science and interdisciplinary science.

1. Origin

The earliest origins of science can be traced back to ancient human civilizations. They contributed mathematics, astronomy, and medicine to bring humanity into the natural philosophy of the classical era, thus formally trying to explain the natural causes of events on the basis of the material world.

From the 10th to the 13th centuries, science entered a new process, and in 400 to 1000 AD, with the fall of the Roman Empire, Greek civilization was almost wiped out, and it was fortunately preserved by some fugitive scholars

The world was later revived by Greek works and Western Europe and to yi/si/la

The study of natural philosophy revived "natural philosophy", which gradually evolved into modern science. The scientific revolution that began in the 16th century transformed the way scientific research was conducted, and this scientific method soon became even more effective. It was not until the 19th century that the scientific functions of many institutions and professions began to take shape, and the transformation from "natural philosophy" to "natural science" was completed during this period.

2. Early development

In ancient times, there was no precise definition of the word "science" and related concepts. Ancient people used knowledge about the properties of various natural chemicals to make pottery, faience, glass, soap, metal, lime plaster, and waterproofing materials; They also studied animal physiology, anatomy, and behavior for divination purposes and recorded the movement of astronomical objects for their astrological studies. He has a keen interest in medicine. Despite this, the ancients seem to have had little interest in gathering information about the natural world for the sole purpose of gathering information, mainly studying only scientific disciplines that had obvious practical applications or were directly related to their religious systems.

3. Classical science

In the classical period, there was no real ancient analogue of modern scientists. Instead, well-educated, usually upper-class male individuals who conduct various investigations into nature whenever they have time. Before their philosophers invented or discovered the concept of "nature," they tended to use the same terms to describe the natural "way of growth" of plants, as well as, for example, the "way" of a particular tribe worshipping a particular deity. For this reason, these people are said to be the first philosophers in the strict sense of the word, and the first to make a clear distinction between "nature" and "custom". Natural philosophy is the precursor of natural science.

4. Medieval Science - A Feast of Oriental Science

This carrier of oriental civilization has continued since 221 BC, when the Qin in northwest China conquered the other six kingdoms and established a highly centralized unified China. From the complete collapse of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD to the completion of the Renaissance in the 16th century, in the long development process of nearly a thousand years, the ancient country of the East produced a total of eight great unification historical periods, which are: Han (206-220 BC), Jin (265-420), Sui (581-618), Tang (618-907), Song (960-1279), Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368- 1644) and the last and most well-known period of great unification under the influence of the Qin system, the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). In this long historical period, this ancient oriental country has shown its vigorous vitality and made indelible contributions to the scientific development of the world.

Agriculture: Agricultural culture is one of the imprints of this civilization, in the whole world at that time, its degree of development is the highest, the main works are "The Book of Sheng", "Qi Min Yaoshu", "Chen Yang Nongshu", "Wang Zhen Nongshu", "Agricultural Administration".

Medicine: Starting from the "Yellow Emperor's Neijing", Chinese medicine has developed so far, and its main documents include "Shennong's Materia Medica", "Shennong's Materia Medica", "Xinxiu Materia Medica", "Historical Evidence of Emergency Materia Medica", "Compendium of Materia Medica", "Acupuncture and Moxibustion A and B Classics", "Bronze Acupuncture Acupuncture and Moxibustion Diagram Sutra", "Fourteen Meridians", "Pulse Meridians", "Behind the Elbow", "Treatise on the Origin and Syndrome of Diseases", "Qianjin Fang", and "Secrets of Outer Taiwan".

Astronomy: The achievements in astronomy mainly include lunisolar calendars, celestial observations, astronomical instruments and cosmology, and related works include "lunisolar calendar", "lunisolar calendar", "Taichu calendar", "quadrangle calendar", "Ming calendar" by Zu Chongzhi, "Dayan calendar" by monks and his party in the Tang Dynasty, "Twelve Qi Festival Calendar" by Shen Kuo of the Northern Song Dynasty, "Calendar of Time Granted" by Guo Shoujing in the Yuan Dynasty, "Shixian Calendar" of the Qing Dynasty, "Astronomical Astronomical Astronomical Astrology" and "Astronomy" of the Warring States Period, and "Five Stars Divided" by Mawangdui Silk Book.

Mathematics: Arithmetic in ancient times, it was mainly used to solve practical calculation problems encountered in life, and the main works were: "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic", "Zhou Ji Sutra", "Island Arithmetic", "Sun Tzu Sutra", "Xiahouyang Sutra", "Fixation", "Wucao Sutra", "Five Classics Arithmetic", "Zhang Qiujian Sutra", "Ancient Sutra".

Science and technology: ceramics, silk weaving, papermaking, printing, navigation, engineering and construction, HUO/YAO development, there are a large number of physical objects that have survived to this day;

5. The Renaissance and the Enlightenment: The Birth and Development of Early Modern Science

5.1 Renaissance

With the advent of the Western Renaissance, science ushered in a new stage of development, and on this basis, it eventually evolved into "modern science".

New developments in optics played a role in the early Renaissance, both challenging long-standing metaphysical notions of perception and promoting the refinement and development of technologies such as camera obscura and telescopes. Before the beginning of the Renaissance as we now know it, Roger Bacon, Vitero, and John Peckham each established an academic ontology on a causal chain that began with the feeling, perception, and ultimate recognition of Aristotle's individual and universal forms. A visual model later called Perspectiveism was developed and studied. Created by Renaissance artists. The theory uses only three of Aristotle's four causes: form, matter, and ultimate cause.

In the sixteenth century, Copernicus developed the heliocentric theory of different models of the solar system and the geocentric Ptolemy's astronomical model. This was based on the theorem that as the planet's sphere moved farther and farther away from the center of motion, the planet's orbital period would be longer, which he found inconsistent with Ptolemy's model.

Keple

) and others challenged the notion that the only function of the eye is to perceive, and shifted the main focus of optics from the eye to the propagation of light. Kepler modeled the eye as a water-filled glass sphere with a small hole in front of it to model the entrance pupil. He found that all the light emitted from a single point in the scene was imaged at a single point on the back of the glass sphere. The optical chain terminates at the retina at the back of the eye. Kepler is famous for improving Copernicus's heliocentric model by discovering Kepler's laws of planetary motion. Kepler did not reject Aristotle's metaphysics and described his work as a quest for Aristotle.

Galileo made innovative use of experimentation and mathematics. However, he was persecuted after Pope Urban VIII prevented Galileo from writing the Copernican system. Galileo had used the papal argument and put it in a work "Dialogue on the Two Main World Systems", expressed in a simple tone, which greatly offended Urban VIII.

In Northern Europe, the new technology of the printing press was widely used to publish many arguments, including some that were very different from contemporary ideas of nature. René Descartes

éDesca

tes) and Francis Bacon (F

a

cis Baco

published a new philosophical outlook in favor of non-Aristotelian science. Descartes emphasized the individual mind and advocated that nature should be studied using mathematics rather than geometry. Bacon emphasized that experimentation is more important than contemplation. Bacon further questioned Aristotle's notion of formal and ultimate causality, and proposed the notion that science should study the laws of "simple" properties (e.g., heat) rather than assume the existence of any particular property or "formal cause". For every complex type of thing, this new science begins to see itself as describing the "laws of nature." This updated approach to the study of nature is considered mechanist. Bacon also pointed out that science should first and foremost aim at practical inventions in order to improve the life of mankind as a whole.

5.2 Science in the Age of Enlightenment

As a pioneer of the Age of Enlightenment, Isaac Newto

and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (Gottf

ied Wilhelm Leib

i.Z.) successfully developed a new physics, now called classical mechanics, which could be confirmed experimentally and explained using mathematics (Newto

, 1687), Natural Philosophy, Principia Mathematica). Leibniz also incorporated articles from Aristotelian physics, but now new non-teleological ways are used, for example, "energy" and "potential" (Aristotle's modern version e.).

e

GEIA and POTE

tia“）。 This implies a change in the view of objects: Aristotle had pointed out that objects had certain achievable innate goals, which were now considered to have no innate goals. In the style of Francis Bacon, Leibniz postulated that different types of things work according to the same laws of nature, and that each has no particular form or end cause, during which the term "science" gradually became more commonly used to refer to a type of pursuit of a certain knowledge, especially natural knowledge, with a meaning very close to the old term "natural philosophy".

During this time, the stated purpose and value of science began to generate wealth and inventions, and in the materialistic sense, humans had more food, clothing, and other things that could improve human life. In Bacon's words, "the true legitimate goal of science is to give new inventions and riches to human life," and he discouraged scientists from pursuing intangible philosophical or spiritual ideas.

Science during the Enlightenment was dominated by scientific societies and academic institutions, which had replaced universities as centers of scientific research and development. Social and academic institutions are also the pillars of the maturity of the scientific profession. Another important development is the popularization of science among a growing number of people. Philosophers have channeled public attention to many scientific theories.

Some historians label the 18th century as a dry period in the history of science; However, this century has seen significant advances in the practice of medicine, mathematics and physics. the development of taxonomy; a new understanding of magnetism and electricity; The maturity of chemistry as a discipline has laid the foundation for modern chemistry.

Enlightenment philosophers chose the short history of the pioneers of science (primarily Galileo, Boyle, and Newton) as a guide for applying the singular concepts of nature and natural laws to every physical and other social field today. In this regard, the lessons of history and the social structure based on it can be discarded.

3. Quantum mechanics research

1. 19th Century Science

The nineteenth century was a particularly important period in the history of science, because in this era many distinctive features of contemporary modern science began to take shape, such as the transformation of the life and physical sciences, the frequent use of precision instruments, the gradual removal of "biologists", "physicists", "scientists" from such obsolete labels as "natural philosophy" and "natural history", the increased specialization of those who studied natural sciences, which led to a decrease in amateur naturalists, scientists in many aspects of society, The economic expansion and industrialization of many countries gained cultural authority, and popular scientific works and scientific journals appeared.

Key Achievements:

In the early 19th century, John Dalton (Joh

Dalto

proposed the modern atomic theory, which is based on Democ

ITUS) originally thought of an indivisible particle known as an atom.

John Herschel and William Whewell systematized the method: the latter was the scientist who coined the term.

When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, he established the theory of evolution as a universal explanation for biological complexity. His theory of natural selection provided a natural explanation for the origin of species, but it was not widely accepted until a century later.

The law of conservation proposed, the conservation of energy, the conservation of momentum and the conservation of mass propose a very stable universe with little loss of resources. However, with the advent of the steam engine and the development of the Industrial Revolution, there was a growing recognition that all forms of energy as defined in physics were not equally useful: they did not have the same energy mass. This realization led to the development of the laws of thermodynamics, in which the free energy of the universe has been decreasing: the entropy of a closed universe increases with time.

The theory of electromagnetism was also established in the 19th century and suggested that it could not be easily answered using the Newtonian framework. The phenomenon that allowed the deconstruction of atoms was discovered in the last decade of the 19th century: the discovery of X-rays inspired the discovery of radioactivity. The following year the first subatomic particle, the electron, was discovered.

2. Science in the 20th century

The development of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum mechanics led to an alternative to classical mechanics with a new physics that contained two parts describing different types of natural events.

At the same time, the structure of the atom and its nucleus was discovered, which freed up "atomic energy" (nuclear energy). In 1953, the molecular structure of DNA was discovered. In 1964, cosmic microwave background radiation was discovered.

In addition, the wars of this century inspired the widespread use of technological innovations, which led to a revolution in transport (cars and aircraft), the development of intercontinental ballistic guides, the space race and the nuclear arms race. In the first half of the century, the development of antibiotics and artificial fertilizers made it possible to grow the global population. In the second half of the century, the development of space technology made it possible to make the first astronomical measurements of other objects of celestial bodies, including manned landings on the moon. Space telescopes have led to numerous discoveries in astronomy and cosmology.

In the late 20th century, the widespread use of integrated circuits combined with communication satellites sparked a revolution in information technology, as well as the rise of the global internet and mobile computing, including smartphones. The need for massive systematization and large amounts of data intertwined with complex causal relationships has led to the rise of the fields of systems theory and computer-aided scientific modeling, which are based in part on the Aristotelian paradigm.

3. Science in the 21st century

With the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, the last particle predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics was discovered. In 2015, gravitational waves predicted by the general theory of relativity were observed for the first time a century ago.

4. Quantum theory

Quantum (qua

tum) is an important concept in modern physics. That is, if there is the smallest indivisible basic unit of a physical quantity, then the physical quantity is quantized, and the smallest unit is called quantum.

The word quantum comes from the Latin word qua

tus, which means "how many", stands for "a considerable amount of a certain substance", and it was first proposed by the German physicist Planck in 1900. In classical physics, according to the energy equalization theorem: energy is continuously variable and can take any value. In the late 19th century, scientists discovered that many physical phenomena could not be explained by classical theories. Planck hypothesized that the radiation energy in blackbody radiation is discontinuous and can only be taken as an integer multiple of the basic unit of energy, thus explaining the experimental phenomenon of blackbody radiation well.

Later studies have shown that not only energy exhibits this discontinuous separation property, but other physical quantities such as angular momentum, spin, and charge also exhibit this discontinuous quantization phenomenon. This is fundamentally different from classical physics, represented by Newtonian mechanics. The phenomenon of quantization is mainly manifested in the microscopic physical world. The physical theory that describes the microscopic physical world is quantum mechanics.

Since Planck proposed the concept of quantum, a complete theory of quantum mechanics was initially established in the first half of the 20th century through the perfection of Einstein, Bohr, de Broglie, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, Dirac, Born and others. The vast majority of physicists view quantum mechanics as a fundamental theory for understanding and describing nature.

In 1905, German physicist Albert Einstein introduced the quantum concept into the propagation process of light, proposed the concept of "light quantum" (photon), and proposed that light has the properties of both waves and particles, that is, the "wave-particle duality" of light.

In the 20s of the 20th century, the French physicist de Broglie proposed the concept of "matter waves", that is, all material particles have wave-particle duality; German physicist Heisenberg and others established quantum matrix mechanics; The Austrian physicist Schrödinger established quantum wave dynamics. The development of quantum theory entered the stage of quantum mechanics.

In 1928, the British physicist Dirac completed the mathematical equivalence proof between matrix mechanics and wave dynamics, systematically summarized the theory of quantum mechanics, and successfully combined the two theoretical systems, relativity theory and quantum mechanics, to open the prelude to quantum field theory. Quantum theory is one of the two cornerstones of modern physics, providing a theoretical basis for understanding macroscopic phenomena at the microscopic level.

The quantum hypothesis has had a powerful impact on classical physics, promoted physics to the microscopic level, and laid the foundation for modern physics. But until now, some of the assumptions of physicists about quantum mechanics have not been fully proven, and there is still a lot to be studied.

Science is not against the law of cause and effect

There is no inevitability in the direction of scientific development

In the law of cause and effect that people understood in the past, there was a necessary and unchangeable result, such as 1+1=2, and 1+1 must be 2 when measured by the law of cause and effect that people knew in the past, and in science, there is a possibility that 1+1 can not be equal to 2. This possibility makes the law of cause and effect more like a "vague norm" than an exact rule; The former is more important than meaning, while the latter is more important than the form itself.

At the present stage, the so-called science of mankind pursues a form, and this is its limitation. The result, the scientific outcome, is of great significance to society as a whole, but it is not considered much in the whole process of scientific research.

There is no close relationship between different scientific achievements

The development of modern science, especially the major scientific discoveries and the solution of major social problems in the national economy and people's livelihood, often involve the intermingling and interpenetration of different disciplines. The intersection of disciplines has gradually formed a number of interdisciplinary disciplines, such as the intersection of chemistry and physics to form physical chemistry and chemical physics, the intersection of chemistry and biology to form biochemistry and chemical biology, and the intersection of physics and biology to form biophysics. The continuous development of these interdisciplinary disciplines has greatly promoted scientific progress, so that interdisciplinary research (i

te

discipli

a

y

esea

ch) embodies the trend of scientific development towards comprehensiveness. The emergence of new theories and inventions in science and the emergence of new engineering technologies are often at the edge or intersection of disciplines, and attaching importance to interdisciplinary disciplines will enable science itself to develop to a deeper and higher level, which is in line with the objective laws of nature. Since the existing disciplines are artificially divided, and scientific problems exist objectively, according to people's level of understanding, in the past, there were only six first-level disciplines of astronomy, geography (geology), biology, mathematics, physics, and chemistry; After the development and interdisciplinary research of science in the 20th century, new interdisciplinary disciplines have gradually been formed, such as life science, materials science, environmental science, etc., but even so, the research results between various disciplines do not have a necessary causal connection, and even if different research results in the same discipline do not necessarily have this causal connection, so the causal relationship is passive in the research results of the whole science, rather than actively establishing each other. This also reflects the blindness of science itself on another level, and it is also a manifestation of its limitations.