Causation and Explanation

ISBN-13: 9781902683416 / Twarda / 2002 / 320 str.

Stathis Psillos

Opis

This text introduces the major philosophical debates surrounding the concepts of causation and explanation. In particular, it explores the connections between the two concepts and the role of causation in explanation. What is the nature of causation? Is it a relation between events? Or is it a process? Is it an observable relation? Explanation has typically been thought of as a kind of argument but do they have to be so? If not, then what are they?

Spis treści

Preface Abbreviations Introduction Part I Causation 1. Hume on causation 2. Regularities and singular causation 3. Causation and counterfactuals 4. Causation and mechanism Part II Laws of nature 5. The regularity view of laws 6. Laws as relations among universals 7. Alternative approaches to laws Part III Explanation 8. Deductive-nomological explanation 9. Statistical explanation 10. Explanation of laws 11. The metaphysics of explanation Notes References Index

O autorze

Stathis Psillos