Metaphysics of Causation

This Element shows that causal models and process accounts are complementary, accounting for causation at types and particular events.

Max Kistler (Author)

9781009500340, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 January 2025

82 pages
23.5 x 16 x 1 cm, 0.257 kg

This Element presents the main attempts to account for causation as a metaphysical concept, in terms of 1) regularities and laws of nature, 2) conditional probabilities and Bayes nets, 3) necessitation between universals and causal powers, 4) counterfactual dependence, 5) interventions and causal models, and 6) processes and mechanisms. None of these accounts can provide a complete reductive analysis. However, some provide the means to distinguish several useful concepts of causation, such as total cause, contributing cause, direct and indirect cause, and actual cause. Moreover, some of these accounts can be construed so as to complement each other. The last part presents some contemporary debates: on the relation between grounding and causation, eliminativism with respect to causation in physics, the challenge against 'downward' causation from the Closure and Exclusion principles, robust and proportional causation, and degrees of causation. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Introduction
1. Accounts of causation in terms of regularities and law of nature
2. Probabilities and Bayes nets
3. Necessitation between universals and causal powers
4. Counterfactual dependence
5. Interventions and causal models
6. Methodological interlude
7. Processes and mechanisms
8. Integrating causal models with processes
9. Contemporary debates
References.

Subject Areas: Philosophy [HP]