Causation: The Basics

Causation: The Basics explores questions about what causes are, and how we come to know them, describe them, and put them to use. The book begins with an introduction the history of philosophical thinking about causation, followed by a series of chapters introducing important contemporary accounts of causation.

Autorentext

Stuart Glennan is the Harry Ice Professor of Philosophy at Butler University. He has published widely on causation and explanation in philosophy of science, and is the author of The New Mechanical Philosophy (2017) and co-editor with Phyllis Illari of the Routledge Handbook of Mechanisms and Mechanical Philosophy (2018).

Klappentext

Causation: The Basics explores questions about what causes are, and how we come to know them, describe them, and put them to use. The book begins with an introduction the history of philosophical thinking about causation, followed by a series of chapters introducing important contemporary accounts of causation.

Inhalt

1. Some Basic Questions about Causation

2. Thinking about Causation: A Selective History

3. Causes, Regularities, and Laws

4. Causation, Probability, and Chance

5. Causation and Counterfactuals

6. Models and Interventions

7. Causal Processes and Mechanisms

8. Causes, Purposes, and Agency

9. Finding Causes

10. Choosing Causes