Causa sui

Causa sui (meaning cause of itself in Latin) denotes something, which is generated within itself. This concept was central to the works of Spinoza, Freud, and Ernest Becker, where it relates to the purpose that objects can assign to themselves. In Freud and Becker's case, the concept was often used as an immortality vessel, where something could create meaning or continue to create meaning beyond its own life.

In Phenomenology of Perception, Maurice Merleau-Ponty critiqued Descartes cogito ergo sum by saying it was a causa sui. That is, to be self-conscious one must be conscious of being conscious of something at the moment one becomes conscious of that something. Self-consciousness, therefore, would be a causa sui in the cogito. It must be the cause of itself.

In traditional Western theism, God cannot be created by any other force or being, therefore God is either self-caused (causa sui) or uncaused.

Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza famously argued this view.

Schopenhauer's reply

Schopenhauer likened Spinoza's argument to one of the legends told of Baron Münchhausen:

See also

• Causality

References