The Principle of Proportionate Causality

A basic truth about causality is that the cause must be in some way in the effect (and vice-versa), which is called ‘the principle of proportionate causality’.

For example, the hot stove has heat and thusly can heat up the pan: the hot stove is proportionately present in the hot pan by way of the heat that each has. However, this principle is not meaning to convey that the cause must have the same property that it caused in its effect—e.g., it is not saying that the hot pan had to be made hot by something that is already hot. For example, a microwave causes food to be hot without itself being hot; but, yet, the microwave’s means of causing the food to heat up is present in the food as its effect: the radiation that causes the excitations in the molecules is present proportionally insofar as the excitations are still there from them.