Argumentative assertion, controversy. The word is derived from "eris", discord.
"Downward causality" is one of the many workarounds philosophers have come
up with to get around the permanently open question of determinism.
They fight about it a lot (well, some of them). I probably used it
because the words "sophistry" and "rhetoric" have already been flogged
to death lately, at least in the conversations I've been having.
I think Neill Peart beat all the philosophers on this one. He wrote in his
lyric "I will choose freewill". See? Chosen, not proven.
-- Eric Watt Forste ++ arkuat@pobox.com ++ http://www.pobox.com/~arkuat/