Day 5: Basic Beliefs Challenge

Main point: 

Causation flows in multiple directions.

Expansion: 

Reality exhibits multiple types and directions of internal causation—including both upward and downward.

Upward causation occurs when causal influence propagates from microphysical components to higher-level structures, step by step.

Downward causation arises in some compositionally complex systems when a higher-level structure, entity, or feature—though emergent from lower-level parts—can reliably and non-randomly influence those parts in return.

This bidirectional structure enables feedback loops across levels of organization within a single, unified system.

Counter Claim:

All causation is fundamentally upward. Even when higher-level properties correlate with causal patterns, they do not constitute distinct causal powers. They are epiphenomenal—dependent on, and entirely determined by, the causal activity of their lower-level constituents.