Thinking About Causes

by Machamer, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780822943099
• ISBN10: 0822943093
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-05-10
• Publisher: Univ of Pittsburgh Pr

Summary

Emerging 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 Causesbrings 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 provide the best current thinking about causality, especially as it relates to the philosophy of science.

Author Biography

Peter Machamer is professor of history and philosophy of science, University of Pittsburgh. He is coeditor, with Gereon Wolters, of Science, Values, and Objectivity, Theory and Method in the Neurosciences, and other books.

Gereon Wolters is professor of philosophy and deputy director of the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Konstanz. He is coeditor of Concepts, Theories, and Rationality in the Biological Sciences and Logic, Language, and the Structure of Scientific Theories, among other books.

Table of Contents

The Concept of Causality in Greek Thought	p. 1
Moral Causes: The Role of Physical Explanation in Ancient Ethics	p. 14
Ancient Stoicism, "Robust Epistemology," and Moral Philosophy	p. 37
Powerless Causes: The Case of Sacramental Causality	p. 47
From Scholasticism to Modern Physics - and Back? The Transformation of Traditional Causal Concepts in Descartes and Occasionalism	p. 77
Kant on Transcendental Laws	p. 100
Freedom from Necessity: The Influence of J. S. Mill's Politics on His Concept of Causation	p. 123
Mill on Causation and the Historical Turn in Philosophy of Science: Some Historical and Methodological Remarks	p. 141
Sprachkritik and the Problem of Historical Understanding: Kant, Dilthey, Wittgenstein, and Weber	p. 154
Plurality in Causality	p. 178
How to Be a Causal Pluralist	p. 200
Do the Causal Principles of Modern Physics Contradict Causal Anti-Fundamentalism?	p. 222
Epiphenomenalism: The Dos and the Don'ts	p. 235
On Selection Of, For, With, and Against	p. 265
Causality in Economics	p. 284
The Core of Free Will	p. 297
Index	p. 311
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