The Effectiveness of CausesThe Effectiveness of Causes presents a strong view of causation seen as an operation between participants in events, and not as a relation holding between events themselves. In it, Emmet proposes that other philosophical views of cause and effect provide only a world of events, each of which is presented as an unchanging unit. Such a world, she contends, is a "Zeno universe," since transitions and movement are lost. Emmet offers a more complex interpretation of the various forms of causal dependence. She sees "immanent" causation in the mere persistence of things, where effects are not temporarily separable from causes, and she considers the operation of "efficacious grace." This is a new approach to the traditional problem and provides stimulating implications for the other metaphysical questions and for the philosophy of science. |
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A. N. Whitehead actual agency causation agent Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Aristotle basic action bodily movements called Cambridge causal explanation causal relations causal statements cause and effect complex connected conscious context continuous counterfactual course D. H. Mellor Davidson depend described distinction divine causation Donald Davidson efficacious event causation event ontology example experience explanatory external factor functioning generalisations Gilbert Ryle give happen human identity immanent causation instance intelligent activity intensional internal INUS condition J. L. Austin J. L. Mackie kind look means mental metaphysical neural nominalisations notion of cause objects occur ontology operations organism pantheism particular past pattern perceptions persistence Philosophy physical prediction present processes produced or prevented R. B. Braithwaite R. G. Collingwood reference relevant selected sense sequences spatio-temporal speak stage teleology temporal things Titanic total cause transeunt causation trying Whitehead word Zeno universe