The Madness of Causation: Why Do We Care?

Thus passed a week in Beervana–with theories spun about how American IPAs evolved, counter theories, and counters to the counter theories. Don’t worry!–this is not going to be another round in the madness. But it is a consideration of the madness itself: why do we care so much about the causal explanation?

This is not a new debate. Establishing causality is a way of creating meaning now, in this time, and that’s what we care about. For decades, Americans have fought bitterly about the American Civil War–was it a dispute over states’ rights, or human slavery? The causal argument is critical because if we trace events back to a defense of slavery, those who support symbols like the Confederate flag and policies like voter ID laws are indicted by it. But, if we can trace them back to a more n …