From Cause to Causation

by Hulswit, Menno

• ISBN13: 9781402009761
• ISBN10: 1402009763
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

From Cause to Causation presents both a critical analysis of C.S. Peirce's conception of causation, and a novel approach to causation, based upon the semeiotic of Peirce. The book begins with a review of the history of causation, and with a critical discussion of contemporary theories of the concept of 'cause'. The author uncovers a number of inadequacies in the received views of causation, and discusses their historical roots. He makes a distinction between "causality", which is the relation between cause and effect, and causation, which is the production of a certain effect. He argues that, by focusing on causality, the contemporary theories fatally neglect the more fundamental problem of causation. The author successively discusses Peirce's theories of final causation, natural classes, semeiotic, and semeiotic causation. Finally, he uses Peirce's semeiotic to develop a new approach to causation, which relates causation to our experience of signs.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Note on References	xi
Preface	xiii
Some Key Moments in the History of the Concept of Causation	1	(46)
Causation in Ancient Greece	2	(6)
Aristotle: Four Types of Explanation	2	(3)
The Stoics: Causation, Exceptionless Regularity, and Necessity	5	(3)
Causation in the Middle Ages	8	(7)
Thomas Aquinas	8	(7)
Causation in Modern Philosophy	15	(26)
The Metaphysical Systems from Descartes till Leibniz	17	(10)
Critical Philosophy from Locke till Mill	27	(14)
Conclusion: Important Changes in the Meaning of Cause	41	(6)
Contemporary Approaches to Causation	47	(28)
The Contemporary Debate	47	(17)
Necessary and/or Sufficient Conditions	47	(7)
Causes and Counterfactual Dependency	54	(2)
The Instrumental Approach: Causes as Means-to-Ends	56	(2)
Probabilistic Causation	58	(2)
The Singularist Approach	60	(4)
Basic Issues in the Contemporary Approaches to Causation	64	(9)
Five Fundamental Requirements	64	(3)
The Relata of the Causal Relation	67	(4)
Further Issues	71	(2)
Conclusion	73	(2)
Peirce on Final Causation	75	(22)
Introduction	75	(1)
Peirce's Conception of Final Causation	76	(12)
The Nature of Final Causation	76	(4)
Final Causation and Efficient Causation	80	(2)
Teleological and Mechanistic Processes; Peirce's Rejection of Dualism	82	(2)
Teleology and Objective Chance	84	(1)
Teleology as Creative; Developmental Teleology	85	(3)
A Peircean Critique of Ernst Mayr's Theory of Teleology	88	(7)
The Goal of Evolution	88	(3)
Mayr's Dualism	91	(2)
Mayr's Idea of a Program as `Causally Responsible' for Teleological Processes	93	(2)
Conclusion	95	(2)
Final Causes and Natural Classes	97	(36)
Natural Kinds and Causation in Contemporary Philosophy	99	(2)
Some Contemporary Interpretations of Peircean Natural Kinds	101	(3)
Susan Haack's Interpretation	101	(1)
Christopher Hookway's Interpretation	102	(1)
Sandra Rosenthal's Interpretation	103	(1)
Peirce versus Mill	104	(5)
Mill's Theory of Natural Kinds	104	(1)
Natural Kinds and the Uniformity of Nature; Peirce's Earliest Discussion of Natural Kinds	105	(2)
Peirce's Baldwin Definition of Kind	107	(1)
The PRE-Character	108	(1)
Kinds and Classes	109	(3)
Classification According to Final Causes	112	(4)
Criteria of Demarcation	116	(3)
Recapitulation: Definition of Peircean Natural Classes	119	(2)
Why Believe in Natural Classes?	121	(1)
Examples of Natural Classes	122	(5)
Examples from the Realm of Human Experience: Social Classes, the Sciences, and Man-Made Objects	122	(1)
The Chemical Elements	123	(3)
The Biological Species	126	(1)
Was Peirce a Pluralist Regarding Natural Classes?	127	(4)
Conclusion: Natural Classes and Causation	131	(2)
The Riddle of Semeiotic Causation	133	(34)
Some Fundamental Conditions of Signs as Such	134	(5)
Early Basic Insights	134	(2)
Later Developments	136	(3)
T.L. Short	139	(5)
Joseph Ransdell	144	(3)
Some Problems Generated by Short's and Ransdell's Views	147	(1)
The Causal Role of the Dynamic Object	148	(5)
Positive Evidence	148	(2)
Negative Evidence	150	(3)
Icon, Index, and Symbol	153	(7)
The Meaning of `Determines'	160	(4)
Conclusion	164	(3)
A Semeiotic Account of Causation	167	(52)
Criticism of the Received View	167	(13)
Contemporary Approaches to Causation	168	(2)
Two Mutually Incompatible Conceptions of Cause	170	(1)
The Inadequacy of the Received View	171	(5)
Two Mutually Incompatible Categoreal Frameworks	176	(3)
Conclusion to Part 1: Criticism of the Received View	179	(1)
Necessary Conditions for a Theory of Causation	180	(1)
Peirce on Causality and Causation	181	(14)
Peirce's Critique of the Principle of Causality	181	(6)
Peirce's Conception of Causation	187	(3)
Causality and Causation: Facts versus Events	190	(2)
Events and Processes	192	(2)
Conclusion to Part 3: Causality and Causation	194	(1)
A Semeiotic Approach to Causation	195	(18)
Some Formal Characteristics of Semeiosis	195	(2)
The Problem of Semeiotic Causation	197	(1)
Semeiosis Provides the Formal Structure of Causation	198	(1)
A Semeiotic Approach to Causation	199	(14)
Conclusion: a Peircean Approach to Causation	213	(6)
Notes	219	(14)
Bibliography	233	(10)
Index	243