Hunting Causes and Using Them
Approaches in Philosophy and Economics

Nancy Cartwright provides a critical survey of philosophical and economic literature on causality.

Nancy Cartwright (Author)

9780521860819, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 May 2007

282 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.54 kg

Hunting Causes and Using Them argues that causation is not one thing, as commonly assumed, but many. There is a huge variety of causal relations, each with different characterizing features, different methods for discovery and different uses to which it can be put. In this collection of new and previously published essays, Nancy Cartwright provides a critical survey of philosophical and economic literature on causality, with a special focus on the currently fashionable Bayes-nets and invariance methods - and it exposes a huge gap in that literature. Almost every account treats either exclusively how to hunt causes or how to use them. But where is the bridge between? It's no good knowing how to warrant a causal claim if we don't know what we can do with that claim once we have it. This book will interest philosophers, economists and social scientists.

Introduction
Part I. Plurality in Causality: 1. Preamble
2. Causation: one word, many things
3. Causes: warranting them and using them
4. Where is the theory in our 'theories' of causality?
Part II. Case Studies: Bayes-nets and Invariance Theories: 5. Preamble
6. What is wrong with Bayes-nets?
7. Modularity: it can - and generally does - fail
8. Against modularity, the causal Markov condition and any link between the two: comments on Hausman and Woodward
9. From metaphysics to method: comments on manipulability and the causal Markov condition
10. Two theorems on invariance and causality
Part III. Causal Theories in Economics: 11. Preamble
12. Probabilities and experiments
13. How to get causes from probabilities: Cartwright on Simon on causation
14. The merger of cause and strategy: Hoover on Simon on causation
15. The vanity of rigour in economics: theoretical models and Galilean experiments
16. Counterfactuals in economics: a commentary.

Subject Areas: Philosophy of science [PDA], Economic theory & philosophy [KCA]