Hunting Causes and Using Them: Approaches in Philosophy and Economics

by Nancy Cartwright

• ISBN13: 9780521860819
• ISBN10: 0521860814
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-06-18
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Plurality in causality
Preamble	p. 9
Causation: one word, many things	p. 11
Causal claims: warranting them and using them	p. 24
Where is the theory in our 'theories' of causality?	p. 43
Case studies: Bayes nets and invariance theories
Preamble	p. 57
What is wrong with Bayes nets?	p. 61
Modularity: it can - and generally does - fail	p. 80
Against modularity, the causal Markov condition and any link between the two: comments on Hausman and Woodward	p. 97
From metaphysics to method: comments on manipulability and the causal Markov condition	p. 132
Two theorems on invariance and causality	p. 152
Causal theories in economics
Preamble	p. 175
Probabilities and experiments	p. 178
How to get causes from probabilities: Cartwright on Simon on causation	p. 190
The merger of cause and strategy: Hoover on Simon on causation	p. 203
The vanity of rigour in economics: theoretical models and Galilean experiments	p. 217
Counterfactuals in economics: a commentary	p. 236
Bibliography	p. 262
Index	p. 268
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