2017-01-12

The Counterfactual Theory of Causation by Marianne Talbot


source: Philosophical Overdose    2016年12月18日
Marianne Talbot gives the second talk in a series on the nature of causation at Oxford. This talk explores the counterfactual conception of causation, which is the idea that an event c causes event e if and only if had c not had occurred e would not have occurred either. It has its roots in Hume, but was made precise in the 20th century by David Lewis and others...
Causation is an important concept that we all use in ordinary, everyday life, as well as in science. Causation is so important in fact that it has been said that: “With regard to our total conceptual apparatus, causation is the centre of the centre”, and it has been called called ‘the cement of the universe’. But what exactly is causation? In these lectures, the most influential theories of causation are introduced, as well as the motivations for them, the arguments behind them, and the problems they face.
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This is from the University of Oxford -- Creative Commons.