Causation and ExplanationIn the section on laws of nature, Psillos considers both the regularity view of laws and laws as relations among universals as well as alternative approaches to laws. In the final section on explanation he examines in detail the issues arising from deductive-nomological explanation and statistical explanation before considering the explanation of laws and the metaphysics of explanation. Accessible to students of all levels the author provides an excellent introduction to one of the most enduring problems of philosophy. |
Contents
Hume on causation | 19 |
Regularities and singular causation | 57 |
Causation and counterfactuals | 81 |
Causation and mechanism | 107 |
The regularity view of laws | 137 |
Laws as relations among universals | 159 |
Alternative approaches to laws | 179 |
Deductivenomological explanation | 215 |
Statistical explanation | 241 |
Explanation of laws | 263 |
The metaphysics of explanation | 281 |
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Common terms and phrases
accept account of causation analysis approach argue Armstrong Boyle's law capacities capture causal dependence causal explanation causal inference causal laws causal process causal relations ceteris paribus characterization claim concept of causation conserved quantity constant conjunction counter-examples counterfactual conditionals counterfactual dependence deductive system deductive-nomological model DN explanation DN model Ducasse empiricist enumerative induction epistemic event-types explanandum express fact factors Fs are Gs genuine laws Hempel hence Hume's Humean ibid idea of necessary ideal Hume corpus inductive instance instantiated interaction intervention intrinsic intuition invariance issue Kitcher lawlike statement laws and accidents laws of nature Lewis Lewis's logical Mackie Mackie's Menzies metaphysical necessary connection necessity nomic nomological non-causal non-Humean notion objects occur offer particular penicillin philosophers possible worlds prediction problem properties reason regularities relevant Salmon shadow singular causal statements singular events singularist statistical explanation streptococcus supervenience Suppose thought tion true view of laws Woodward