Causal Powers and Powerful Causes
Author: Charlotte Sara Matheson
Publisher:
Published: 2010
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13:
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Causal Powers
Author: Jonathan D. Jacobs
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 245
ISBN-13: 0198796579
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWe use concepts of causal powers and their relatives-dispositions, capacities, and abilities-to describe the world around us, both in everyday life and in scientific practice. This volume presents new work on the nature of causal powers, and their connections with other phenomena within metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind.
Thinking about Causes
Author: Peter Machamer
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Pre
Published: 2010-06-15
Total Pages: 327
ISBN-13: 0822971119
DOWNLOAD EBOOKEmerging as a hot topic in the mid-twentieth century, causality is one of the most frequently discussed issues in contemporary philosophy. Causality has been a central concept in philosophy as well as in the sciences, especially the natural sciences, dating back to its beginning in Greek thought. David Hume famously claimed that causality is the cement of the universe. In general terms, it links eventualities, predicts the consequences of action, and is the cognitive basis for the acquisition and the use of categories and concepts in the child. Indeed, how could one answer why-questions, around which early rational thought begins to revolve, without hitting on the relationships between reason and consequence, cause and effect, or without drawing these distinctions? But a comprehensive definition of causality has been notoriously hard to provide, and virtually every aspect of causation has been subject to much debate and analysis.Thinking About Causes brings together top philosophers from the United States and Europe to focus on causality as a major force in philosophical and scientific thought. Topics addressed include: ancient Stoicism and moral philosophy; the case of sacramental causality; traditional causal concepts in Descartes; Kant on transcendental laws; the influence of J. S. Mill's politics on his concept of causation; plurality in causality; causality in modern physics; causality in economics; and the concept of free will.Taken together, the essays in this collection from the Pittsburgh -Konstanz series provide the best current thinking about causality, especially as it relates to the philosophy of science.
Getting Causes from Powers
Author: Stephen Mumford
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2011-09-29
Total Pages: 271
ISBN-13: 019969561X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCausation is everywhere in the world: it features in every science and technology. But how much do we understand it? Here, the authors develop a new theory of causation based on an ontology of real powers or dispositions. They provide the first detailed outline of a thoroughly dispositional approach, and explore its surprising features.
Causal Powers
Author: Rom Harré
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 1975
Total Pages: 208
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCausation: A Very Short Introduction
Author: Stephen Mumford
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2013-11-28
Total Pages: 145
ISBN-13: 0191507385
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCausation is the most fundamental connection in the universe. Without it, there would be no science or technology. There would be no moral responsibility either, as none of our thoughts would be connected with our actions and none of our actions with any consequences. Nor would we have a system of law because blame resides only in someone having caused injury or damage. Any intervention we make in the world around us is premised on there being causal connections that are, to a degree, predictable. It is causation that is at the basis of prediction and also explanation. This Very Short Introduction introduces the key theories of causation and also the surrounding debates and controversies. Do causes produce their effects by guaranteeing them? Do causes have to precede their effects? Can causation be reduced to the forces of physics? And are we right to think of causation as one single thing at all? ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Reconsidering Causal Powers
Author: Henrik Lagerlund
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2021-02-18
Total Pages: 304
ISBN-13: 0192640925
DOWNLOAD EBOOKCausal powers are returning to the forefront of realist philosophy of science. Once central features of philosophical thinking about the natures of substances and causes, they were banished during the early modern era and the Scientific Revolution. In this volume, distinguished scholars revisit the fortunes of causal powers as scientific explanatory principles within the theories of substance and cause across history. Each chapter focuses on the philosophical roles causal powers were thought to play at the time, and the reasons offered in support, or against, their coherence and ability to perform these roles. By placing rigorous philosophical analyses of thinking about causal powers within their historical contexts, features of their natures which might remain hidden to contemporary practitioners can be more readily identified and more carefully analyzed. The thoughts of such prominent philosophers as Aristotle, Scotus, Ockham, and Buridan are explored, then on through Suarez, Descartes, and Malebranche, to Locke and Hume, and ultimately to contemporary figures like the logical positivists Goodman and Lewis.
Causal Powers and the Intentionality Continuum
Author: William A. Bauer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2022-10-20
Total Pages: 249
ISBN-13: 1009214845
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhy does anything happen? What is the best account of natural necessity? In this book, William A. Bauer presents and defends a comprehensive account of the internal structure of causal powers that incorporates physical intentionality and information. Bauer explores new lines of thought concerning the theory of pure powers (powerful properties devoid of any qualitative nature), the place of mind in the physical world, and the role of information in explaining fundamental processes. He raises probing questions about physical modality and fundamental properties, and explores the possibility that physical reality and the mind are unified through intentionality. His book will be valuable for researchers and students working in metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind.
Efficient Causation
Author: Tad M. Schmaltz
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2014
Total Pages: 395
ISBN-13: 0199782172
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis volume is a collection of new essays by specialists that trace the concept of efficient causation from its discovery (or invention) in Ancient Greece, through its development in late antiquity, the medieval period, and modern philosophy, to its use in contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of science.
The Effectiveness of Causes
Author: Dorothy Emmet
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 1985-06-30
Total Pages: 150
ISBN-13: 1438402058
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Effectiveness of Causes presents a strong view of causation seen as an operation between participants in events, and not as a relation holding between events themselves. In it, Emmet proposes that other philosophical views of cause and effect provide only a world of events, each of which is presented as an unchanging unit. Such a world, she contends, is a "Zeno universe," since transitions and movement are lost. Emmet offers a more complex interpretation of the various forms of causal dependence. She sees "immanent" causation in the mere persistence of things, where effects are not temporarily separable from causes, and she considers the operation of "efficacious grace." This is a new approach to the traditional problem and provides stimulating implications for the other metaphysical questions and for the philosophy of science.
