A Powerful Particulars View of Causation - A Powerful Particulars View of Causation -

The Aims of This Book The Outline of the Book Causation, Metaphysics, and Our Understanding of the Natural World Causation Is Only One of Many Forms of Natural Determination Standard Approaches to Causation Powers-Based Approaches The Challenge from Modern Science The Empiricist Bias About the Method of My Project : Powers-Based vs. neo-Humean Approaches Explaining vs. Characterising Causation Powers-Based and Neo-Humean Accounts Compatible on the Level of Characterisation Hume’s Discussion of Causation The Tools of the Dominant Strategies Does It Really Matter?: Causal Realism Powers-Based Accounts Salmon: Causal Production as Interaction Between Causal Processes The Transmission Account of Causation Ned Hall on the Generative Conception of Causation Stuart Glennan: The Mechanistic Account of Causal Production Causation as a Continuous Process of Production The Standard View Action or Influence in the Standard View Two Types of Empiricism A Return to the Empiricist Reduction of Causes : Causal Production The Standard View: A Reminder A Fundamental Flaw in the Standard View Colloquial Language vs. Science: ‘Action’, ‘Reaction’, and ‘Interaction’Reciprocity of Interactions Bunge’s Rejection of Interaction as the Basis of Causation Interaction Involves Production Unidirectionality Due to Agency Bias Interactions Are Causally Fundamental Necessary Connections Production Requires Endurance and an A View of Time Simultaneous Causation Causation a Form of One-Sided Existential Dependence The Asymmetry of Causation Conclusion : Causal Necessity Causal Necessity as Logical Necessity The Problem of Action at a Temporal Distance The Problem of Interference and Prevention The Standard View Response Interference and Prevention in Powers-Based Causation Causal Necessity Without Ceteris Paribus Clause Conclusion : Constitution and Persistence The Incompatibility of Causation, Constitution, and Persistence Characterisations A Causal Account of Constitution and Persistence Problems?Concluding Remarks : Substance and Process Substance Ontology The Paradigm of Substance Ontology Aristotelian Substance Ontology Process Ontology The Problem of Process Ontology A World of Processes/Substances : Powers Preliminary Remarks About My Treatment of Powers Different Views of Powers Are Qualities Observable?A Priori Reason for Qualities Being Fundamental Hume’s Separation of Quality and Causal Role The Powerful Qualities View Implicit in the Scientific Image Locke’s Powerful Qualities View Properties and Conditionals The Determinate Nature of Unmanifesting Powers Active and Passive Powers The Problem of Fit What Is Doing the Work: Powers or Particulars?Concluding Remark : A Critique of Counterfactual Theories of Causation The Appeal of CTCs Counterfactuals Explain Causation vs. Causation Explains Counterfactuals?The Ordinary Concepts of Cause and Counterfactual Dependence Possible Worlds: Truth-Conditions or Truthmakers?Possible Worlds as Truthmakers: Concrete or Abstract?Neo-Humean Metaphysics and CTCs Comparative Similarity and Supervenience Conclusion : The Contrast to Alternative Views The Neo-Humean Contrast The Causal Objectivist Contrast The Contrast to the Standard View Contrast to Powers-Based Accounts I: Relational Realism Contrast to Powers-Based Accounts II: Process Realism Contrast to Powers-Based Accounts III: Structural Accounts Contrast to 20th-Century Friends of Powers Concluding Remark Bibliography