Lawyers, scientists, businesses, physicians, politicians, policy planners, teachers — are all familiar with and use concepts of multiple causation. But in our everyday conversations about controversial subjects — global warming, Presidential politics, war and peace, we tend to focus on ONE cause and effect instead of analyzing and considering the complexity of the subject.

Is Iran, per se, all bad? no. Is the USA, per se, all good? no. Is all global warming caused by human activity? probably not. Is human activity contributing to global warming? Yes, to a “scientific probability”, which means a greater than 95% confidence level.
Is Donald Trump purely evil and always wrong, or is he sent from Heaven to represent God’s Grace on Earth? Only in the extremes of human prejudices can we accept either of these polar opposite ridiculosities. Nobody is all good and nobody is all bad, in any world in which truth is an absolute or in which all values are relative. Villifying others as totally evil ignores their humanity. Sanctifying someone, say, Thomas Jefferson, as all good, also ignores their humanity and human failings.

In the law we use concepts of multiple causation so that the law can more closely and rationally fit the reality of life. When I represent an injured person, I am not required to help them prove that what a defendant did is the SOLE cause of injury. A frequently-given jury instruction states there may be more than one cause of an injury … which helps to take into account that a person may be partly responsible for their own injury (comparative negligence), may have been injured by the combined or successive acts of more than one defendant, or may have had pre-existing health or injury conditions which were aggravated or made worse by a defendant or multiple defendants’ actions.

Besides focusing on sole causes in a multiple cause universe, we also tend to dehumanize others by classifying them into an us/them world, labeling and calling names. “All liberals are consumed with hatred of Donald Trump.” No, we aren’t. “Republicans are tools of the rich and powerful.” Well, yes, but so are Democrats, because our political systems are infused by infinite dark money so you don’t even know whose ox is being gored when you see a political ad by “Americans Against Bad Things Happening” or “Assyrians for Trump”.

My little voice is just a “mote in God’s eye”, but I hope that my tiny speck helps to contribute to kindness and understanding, to intelligent comprehension over ideological purity. Philosophy is the search for truth, not the answer. If what I saw makes you uncomfortable, isn’t that the purpose of free speech and rational discourse? If your response is to call me names or classify me as delusional or angry, you probably missed the data and failed to listen to what I, or the person who wrote the article I posted, had to say.

We recently listed to an audiobook called “Listening to Strangers”. It turns out that many of the cues we use to tell when people are lying or telling the truth are really rotten at telling us when people are lying or telling the truth. But listening carefully, and thinking about what is said as an alternative to what we believe, is how we grow and learn. People are like trees: If we stop growing, we die.