Are actions based on single causes?

[InfiniteNature]

People always ask why a person did it, whether it be for murder or because of some new fashion sense out of the blue, and it rather irritates me when they break down a action whatever it is down to a single primary reason, or even several primary reasons, because you really can't separate the primary reasons from the secondary reasons, it just would never have iniated the action in the first place. People do things based on a whole webwork of reasons, did that mother buy food solely out of concern for her children, well yes maybe but it also was because maybe she was hungry as well, both those reasons were just as important without one of those reasons there might never have been any action, this isn't to say that she was selfish just that there were more reasons for her action then solely maternal instinct.

I decided to talk online, I decided it because I wished to communicate, but also because I am passing the time until I get to class, also because I find the girl next to me attractive, each of these reasons for not iniating action that of leaving for example, are just as important. What I am saying is that the web is more important in most instances then a single part of the web.

The argument that person or group or nation does things for one reason or several primary reasons ignores that there is one a world outside those reasons affecting the choice, and two that there might have been a whole bunch of secondary reasons which caused one of those primary reasons to be a primary reason, without which the primary reason would never have iniated the action.

As a analogy I will use the planting of say a palm tree as decorative ornanment, I'm in Florida so this is applicable, now some would say that the palm tree is natural in that environment, but isn't it just as unnatural as all the nonnative plants, if it does not have its accompaning ecosystem as well, that webwork of animals, microorganisms, and plants, and sunlight and nutrients, and rain and so on.

Maybe the analogy is confusing but the underlying premise I am trying to make is that reasons do not iniatiate without that underlying ecosystem or webwork or reasons which underly or surround it, without which that group of reasons or single reason would not have iniated action.

Anyway some thoughts fellow members, any arguments pro or con, or just ambivalent, whatever.

[Nightmare]

I think I might be lost, but that's not new.

Interesting post. I'll be re-reading it when I'm less tired.

[The Z]

Sorry if I'm mistaken, but are you trying to say that we act based on our environment?

[dragon wench]

I have been doing some academic reading for the last few hours and I am tired, so hopefully I will make sense

I believe that absolutely nothing --people...events... political movements, culture, relationships-- exists in a vacuum. All of human society is interconnected. Of course... human society impacts , and is interconnected with, the natural world as well....

I feel that the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson worded it beautifully in this stanza of the poem Ulysses

I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.

Each strand branches outwards with its many tendrils... and in their turn those tendrils connect with others...

[Maharlika]

...for me the answer is that there is always a reason no matter what. I'm just echoing what DW stated.

However, there are certain significant actions that would need justifiable causes or reasons.

[InfiniteNature]

Bump Bumpety bump, I know this topic is probably not all that interesting for some but I choose to keep it alive, so there ha ha ha ha ha ha ah insane laugh.

In answer to your question, yes our actions are based on our environment but they are also based on the environment within a individual as well, which is just as much a webwork as the outside world, I mean one could look at yourself as a single person, but to look at it another way it could also be conglomeration of ideas opinions, alliances, cooalitions all of which are in you, parts of your personality at odds with other parts, your belief in beleiving in yourself as a christian vs your actually being a Christian. Or say one day you decide you really hate your boss and it would be really cool to kill your boss, You don't do it but that is because of other reasons feelings emotions, you might get caught you'd feel guilty etc. The point is you really can't iron it all down a bunch of reasons, there are probably many more reasons why you don't kill your boss, or one in which you do, or in the case of a student burn down the school. You don't do it because of certain actions, ideas work to contradict those actions from happening, then again a whole alliance of other ideas feelings etc could work to actually iniate that action, some of these reasons or actions might be inside you or they might be based on a outside source, in many ways the perfect analogy for a single person is that of a nation, your the USA say Dragonwench is France, and Mah or nightmare are I don't know Canda, each is a collection of different individuals most of the time, hopefully working to a common cause, but some don't there are probably many different people working a for a different cause, and there are also many different people working in that common cause for different reasons. Back to the analogy, remember each individual could be looked at as a nation each with their own national interests, but as you know no nation is a solid front it might appear that way but in reality it really is a collection of diverse people who have decided to work together for one or another reasons. Just like the nation of Dragonwench is collection of diverse people, or the nation of Mah or Night, and to take this analogy even farther(yes I know lots of groans), each one of those nations has effects on you either through the exchange of people errrm ideas, or through working together or against your nation.

The final point and most of you have by now probably thought make the hurting stop, is that a single person is a whole webwork, a group of people are a webwork, and coalition of groups are a webwork, a nation is a webwork, and finally a union of all nations is a webwork, and each web work interacts in very complex manners sometimes predictable many times not, many times the reasons for action whether its a person or nation is not always what is portrayed, that is to say only a fragment of the whole web is included not the greater framework of the individual or group.

I know I know why won't he shut up, well I'll get tire eventually so use that to give hope.

Anyway thougts ideas, interjections, contradictions, I'm patient I'll wait for answer, and keep doing this bumpety bump bumpety bump thing.

[Jaesha]

*shakes head violently* I read the words, yet I don't get the sentences...

[InfiniteNature]

Hee hee

[The Z]

Forgive me for asking another question, but are you trying to say we all have interior (possibly unconscious) motives?