1 .		Natural and cultural phenomena present different challenges to the analysis of cause and consequence. Make a list of three natural phenomena that seem to lend themselves to fairly simple causal analyses. Then make a list of three cultural phenomena that seem to resist simple analysis because humans are involved. Now go back and see if you can find reasons why the natural phenomena may not really be as simple to analyze as you initially thought. Finally, try to think of ways to make the cultural phenomena more amenable to causal analyses.   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.
2 .		Some authors, most notably British philosopher David Hume, have raised questions about the reality of cause, claiming that although physical events are real, cause is just a story we tell ourselves about sequential events. Consider some causal explanations that are currently accepted and write a brief essay in which you identify one cause that seems to exist in reality and another cause that may, in fact, be little more than a story we tell ourselves to explain a puzzling phenomenon.   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.
3 .		Among the most ardent supporters of the reality of cause are natural scientists working in such fields as biology and chemistry. At the same time, physicists, especially those whose work relies upon relativity and other post-Newtonian ideas, have raised serious questions about the truth value of causal claims. If all causal explanations depend upon event X occurring previous to event Y in a classical notion of time, what problems might the more modern notions of a time-space continuum present for the very notion of the reality of cause?   To create paragraphs in your essay response, type <p> at the beginning of the paragraph, and </p> at the end.