I wrote an article a while back about al-Ghazali’s Philosophy regarding cause-n-effect. Basically, al-Ghazali argued that just because we perceive something to be the effect, does not necessarily make it a direct effect. There may be an intermediary action that is the real cause of the final effect. al-Ghazali argued that in some cases, like fire, we cannot always see the underlying cause, but only see the initial and final step, or a fixed final step.

So this reminded me of a meme that is currently going around the internet.

There’s a three-step meme where only two steps are actually understood.

I’m sure you’ve seen this before.

Examples include:
1. Build a website
2. ????
3. Profit!

There’s also the
1. Start video game
2. ?????
3. Success!

There are also many other variations based on the same premise. Each meme starts off with an initial idea, has an intermediary unknown step, and a final third, and usually positive, outcome.

So it occurred to me that al-Ghazali’s philosophy regarding cause-and-effect, where there may be an underlying, intermediary step that is unknown, yet responsible for the final outcome, is the philosophical basis for this meme.

So, let’s test it out.
1. al-Ghazali dictates a philosophy
2. ????
3. meme

It works!
1. Meme
2. ???
4. This article.

So, is al-Ghazali’s philosophy the basis for this fascinating internet meme?
1. Read the article
2. ???
3. Decide!

And when you’re done,
1. Click an ad on this blog
2. ????
3. Profit! (for me)