Philosophy Now Forum

by Keith Seddon

https://philosophynow.org/issues/2/Precognition_and_Backwards_Causation

Precognition is a matter of human understanding, and is not determined by cause and effect relationships as do most material temporal events. A future event therefore is separated from precognition by a barrier between idea and physical reality. So I do NOT think precognition is a past effect of the future cause as they belong to different realms. Further precognition could be related to final cause included by Aristotle as 1 of 4 causes. The precognition perhaps is wrapped up in the idea resolving itself into reality, the precognition causing the event predicted as a final cause, which is different from an event occurring in physical reality, a material or efficient cause (Aristotle) belonging to a different realm than the final cause.