[split] Critical Thinking Skills

[Mister Agenda]

You mean a chain of causes and effects.

No, because you can end that with an uncaused cause that is not an effect.

An infinite chan of causes and effects has no beginning and therefore is not an effect.

Hence the contradiction. Why is a chain of effects an effect? Because every part of it is an effect. The same applies to an infinite chain. Can you tell me one part that is not an effect?

That's kind of my point. I think you're making a fallacy of composition. Every link of a chain might be a ring of metal. That doesn't mean the chain itself is a ring of metal. Every link in a causal chain may require a preceding cause, but that doesnt' mean the causal chain itself requires a preceding cause. If the causal chain is infinite, there can't be a preceding cause for the whole chain by definition. This isn't a contradiction because the chain itself would not be an effect, it would just be.

An effect by definition requires a cause.

Fair enough.