Tracing the Cause Backwards

3). Pick one concept from the assigned reading (chapter 15), that we have not already discussed, that you found useful or interesting and discuss it.

In the Epstein book, I found tracing the cause backwards to be the most interesting concept because it helped me understand that a line has to be drawn in tracing the cause.

Example: The soccer ball hit my nose, and now it is bleeding. The cause is the soccer ball hitting my nose and the effect is that my nose is bleeding.

We could come up with more causes such as that the girl on the other team headed the soccer ball at my face and now it is bleeding. So really it was the girl who headed the ball at my face that caused my nose to bleed. Or we could say that it was the girl who kicked the ball to the girl who headed the ball, which caused it to hit my nose and make it bleeds’, fault.  

We could go on and on with the possibilities, so having the just one cause makes the process of identifying the cause so much easier. “We stop because as we trace the cause back further it becomes too hard to fill in the normal conditions” (Epstein).