4 ms·

We have to be careful and not fall in reductivism with the "is a symptom not a cause" line of thinking. It could hold you back your whole life. I think it is

We have to be careful and not fall in reductivism with the "is a symptom not a cause" line of thinking. It could hold you back your whole life. I think it is more helpful to think of it as A and B are linked somehow. Otherwise you're holding up an abstract, imaginary, "true cause¨ that someday/maybe we will find. And of course no such thing exists. If we know anything about the body is that it is a complex ORGANISM where there is no single cause to anything. Besides, if drinking before driving is NOT the cause of an accident (could be a myriad of other things like the state of the car, the conditions of the road, the weather, etc). End of the day, we know drinking and driving don't go well together - and a wise man will act accordingly.

luckylion 4y ago
Drug addiction is an illness, but it's not like you randomly get the drug-addiction-virus because you didn't wash your hands after touching something in the super market. Drug addiction usually follows drug abuse, and drug abuse often has a reason. That reason is what leads to drug addiction, in other words: drug addiction is a symptom. You can get people into rehab, but unless the reason for their drug abuse is fixed, they'll have a hard time getting & staying clean. If someone limps because their leg is broken, you'll try to fix their leg, not teach them to walk differently so the limp isn't as visible.