Causation: A User’s Guide 1st Edition by L. A. Paul (PDF)

Description

Causation is at once familiar and mysterious. Many believe that the causal relation is not directly observable, but that we nevertheless can somehow detect its presence in the world. Common sense seems to have a firm grip on causation, and much work in the natural and social sciences relies on the idea. Yet neither common sense nor extensive philosophical debate has led us to anything like agreement on the correct analysis of the concept of causation, or an account of the metaphysical nature of the causal relation. Contemporary debates are driven by opposing motivations, conflicting intuitions, and unarticulated methodological assumptions.Causation: A User’s Guide cuts a clear path through this confusing but vital landscape. L. A. Paul and Ned Hall guide the reader through the most important philosophical treatments of causation, negotiating the terrain by taking a set of examples as landmarks. Special attention is given to counterfactual and related analyses of causation. Using a methodological principle based on the close examination of potential counterexamples, they clarify the central themes of the debate about causation, and cover questions about causation involving omissions or absences, preemption and other species of redundant causation, and the possibility that causation is not transitive. Along the way, Paul and Hall examine several contemporary proposals for analyzing the nature of causation and assess their merits and overall methodological cogency.The book is designed to be of value both to trained specialists and those coming to the problem of causation for the first time. It provides the reader with a broad and sophisticated view of the metaphysics of the causal relation.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Paul and Hall skillfully organize and clarify salient problems inherent in recent deterministic accounts of causation in a clear and discerning exposition appealing to beginner and expert alike. Their account yields deep insight and understanding of a wide variety of problems in the investigation of causality.” -L.C. Archie, Lander University, CHOICE About the Author L. A. Paul is Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has held positions at Yale University, the Australian National University, and the University of Arizona.Ned Hall is Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐If you are interested in metaphysics or any aspect of causality, this is the best review and analysis of contemporary philosophical thought on the matter I have found

⭐I bought this book to learn more about causation after having read two interesting chapters on it for a class in metaphysics. This was the wrong book for that cause! In short it is a far cry from an introductory text.I have high hopes that this is actually a wonderful book for practitioners in the field of philosophy of causation. Unfortunately for me I believed a positive review that said it would be valuable for practitioners as well as the merely curios. The authors of the book write that they also have that goal for the text. They failed in this goal if they ever really had it. It is not that the text is super hard. I have no issue with reading and rereading paragraphs in tough philosophy books. The problem is that this text assumes you have insights into the important texts and articles of the field and they spend most the time in the book discussing those texts. It simply not worth reading before you have spend a considerable time reading those texts in the field of causation.

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