Causation is a central topic in many areas of philosophy. In metaphysics, philosophers want to know what causation is, and how it is related to laws of nature, probability, action, and freedom of the will. In epistemology, philosophers investigate how causal claims can be inferred from statistical data, and how causation is related to perception, knowledge and explanation. In the philosophy of mind, philosophers want to know whether and how the mind can be said to have causal efficacy, and in ethics, whether there is a moral distinction between acts and omissions and whether the moral value of an act can be judged according to its consequences. And causation is a contested concept in other fields of enquiry, such as biology, physics, and the law.
This book provides an in-depth and comprehensive overview of these and other topics, as well as the history of the causation debate from the ancient Greeks to the logical empiricists. The chapters provide surveys of contemporary debates, while often also advancing novel and controversial claims; and each includes a comprehensive bibliography and suggestions for further reading. The book is thus the most comprehensive source of information about causation currently available, and will be invaluable for upper-level undergraduates through to professional philosophers.

Table of Contents

Introduction, Helen Beebee, Christopher Hitchcock and Peter Menzies.
1:The Ancient Greeks, Sarah Broadie
2:The Medievals, John Marenbon
3:The Early Moderns, Kenneth Clatterbaugh
4:Hume, Don Garrett
5:Kant, Eric Watkins
6:The Logical Empiricists, Michael Stöltzner
7:Regularity Theories, Stathis Psillos
8:Counterfactual Theories, L.A. Paul
9:Probabilistic Theories, Jon Williamson
10:Causal Process Theories, Phil Dowe
11:Agency and Interventionist Theories, James Woodward
12:Causal Powers and Capacities, Stephen Mumford
13:Anti-Reductionism, John Carroll
14:Causal Modelling, Christopher Hitchcock
15:Mechanisms, Stuart Glennan
16:Causal Pluralism, Peter Godfrey-Smith
17:Platitudes and Counterexamples, Peter Menzies
18:Causes, Laws and Ontology, Michael Tooley
19:Causal Relata, Douglas Ehring
20:The Time-Asymmetry of Causation, Huw Price and Brad Weslake
21:The Psychology of Causal Perception and Reasoning, David Danks
22:Causation and Observation, Helen Beebee
23:Causation and Statistical Inference, Clark Glymour
24:Mental Causation, Cei Maslen, Terry Horgan and Helen Daly
25:Causation, Action, and Free Will, Alfred Mele
26:Causation and Ethics, Carolina Sartorio
27:Causal Theories of Knowledge and Perception, Ram Neta
28:Causation and Semantic Content, Frank Jackson
29:Causation and Explanation, Peter Lipton
30:Causation and Reduction, Paul Humphreys
31:Causation in Classical Mechanics, Marc Lange
32:Causation in Statistical Mechanics, Lawrence Sklar
33:Causation in Quantum Mechanics, Richard Healey
34:Causation in Spacetime Theories, Carl Hoefer
35:Causation in Biology, Samir Okasha
36:Causation in the Social Sciences, Harold Kincaid
37:Causation in the Law, Jane Stapleton