Introduction to Metaphysics

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Introduction to Metaphysics Alexander Bird
What are Causes?
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David Hume
We may define a cause to be an object, followed
by another, and where all the objects similar to
the first are followed by objects similar to the
second.
Or in other words where, if the first object had
not been, the second never had existed.
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Humes first formulation
c causes e iff for some (natural?) properties
F, G all Fs are followed by Gs
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causation as regularity
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Mithradates VI of Pontus took arsenic but did not
die
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greying of hair
lengthening of eyesight
problem of the common cause
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Humes second formulation
c causes e iff had c not occurred e would not
have occurred
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causation as counterfactual dependence
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Is counterfactual dependence necessary for
causation?
Had A not shot, V would not have died
?
Had A not shot, B would have shot, and V would
have died
late pre-emption
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causal chains
causal chain A ? I and I ? V
V counterfactually depends on I and I
counterfactually depends on A
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causal chains
A
V does not counterfactually depend on I
(or I does not counterfactually depend on A)
early pre-emption
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causation as mechanism
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causation is a process that can transmit a mark
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causation by absence?
the wilting of the plants was caused by the lack
of water
counterfactual dependence but no
mark-transmitting process
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further reading
S. Psillos Causation and Explanation E. Sosa and
M. Tooley (Eds) Causation