We intuitively believe that everything must have a cause. If that is true, does it mean that causation itelf must have a cause? To be clear, I do NOT mean "does the cause of a cause have a cause?" What I mean is, what led to causation existing in the first place?
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1One option is that the first cause, a.k.a. God, is the cause of itself, causality and the rest, if we follow this line of reasoning, see cosmological argument. Another option is that the principle only applies to physical events, not abstractions like itself, or that it is just false. That everything has a cause is rather something we want to believe, while evidence to the contrary is readily available. It feels discomforting that things can just happen out of the blue, but they do. – Conifold Jun 30 '20 at 07:21
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2We discussed a similar topic here https://philosophy.stackexchange.com/questions/70930/is-the-idea-of-a-causal-chain-physical-or-even-scientific/72055#72055 TLDR: 'causation' is an explanatory narrative grouping, rather than really existing in the world. It is a useful fiction which the world can contradict at any time. – CriglCragl Jun 30 '20 at 09:30
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1Does this answer your question? Is the idea of a causal chain physical (or even scientific)? – Jun 30 '20 at 10:03
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Also see Stanford Encyclopedia, "The Metaphysics of Causation". – Brian Z Jun 30 '20 at 11:55
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You are asking "why": the search for causes is exactly the endeavour at answering "why-questions". – Mauro ALLEGRANZA Jun 30 '20 at 13:41
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Causation is simply an inherent feature of the natural world. It's existence can be inferred ab initio from the observation of robust correlations, and it's a foundational tenet of all human thinking and behaviour. You would not be able to do anything purposeful if you did not hold at least the prospect of causing a specific effect. – Steve Jun 30 '20 at 16:47
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1Not "everything" must havea cause, only "every event", where an event is a change of an instant state. – tkruse Jul 01 '20 at 03:43