The situation is not the cause at all, or at least not in the way described, and she (if sufficiently reflexive) would agree with this.
Causes are a part of models of what happens. Only a finite number of conditions are modeled as having counterfactual possibilities, and the rest are left fixed as context.
The situation is “the cause”, holding her emotional mappings fixed. Her emotional mapping are “the cause”, holding the situation fixed. Clearly it’s the interaction between her and the situation that causes the outcome.
Of course, we could also say that “the cause” was that she didn’t take enough anxiolytics that day. Maybe “the cause” was that the elevator operator wasn’t on duty.
The whole situation combined to produce the outcome. It’s easy to find multiple factors that would have causally produced a different outcome.
An argument over what was “the cause” is just a conceptual confusion.
The argument is about blame and disapproval. Some people disapprove of a man who asks out a woman for coffee late at night, while alone together in an elevator. Others find nothing to disapprove of in his behavior, and instead find her emotional reactions unfortunate, and something she’d be better off working to change and control.
Causes are a part of models of what happens. Only a finite number of conditions are modeled as having counterfactual possibilities, and the rest are left fixed as context.
The situation is “the cause”, holding her emotional mappings fixed. Her emotional mapping are “the cause”, holding the situation fixed. Clearly it’s the interaction between her and the situation that causes the outcome.
Of course, we could also say that “the cause” was that she didn’t take enough anxiolytics that day. Maybe “the cause” was that the elevator operator wasn’t on duty.
The whole situation combined to produce the outcome. It’s easy to find multiple factors that would have causally produced a different outcome.
An argument over what was “the cause” is just a conceptual confusion.
The argument is about blame and disapproval. Some people disapprove of a man who asks out a woman for coffee late at night, while alone together in an elevator. Others find nothing to disapprove of in his behavior, and instead find her emotional reactions unfortunate, and something she’d be better off working to change and control.