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Single Idea 17689

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 2. Types of cause ]

Full Idea

Lacks and absences could perhaps by thought of as effects, but we ought to be deeply reluctant to think of them as causes.

Gist of Idea

Absences might be effects, but surely not causes?

Source

David M. Armstrong (What is a Law of Nature? [1983], 10.4)

Book Ref

Armstrong,D.M.: 'What is a Law of Nature?' [CUP 1985], p.147

A Reaction

Odd. So we allow that they exist (as effects), but then deny that they have any causal powers?

The 21 ideas with the same theme [categories of links between successive events]:

13156 Fancy being unable to distinguish a cause from its necessary background conditions! [Plato]
5219 Types of cause are nature, necessity and chance, and mind and human agency [Aristotle]
11252 The 'form' of a thing explains why the matter constitutes that particular thing [Aristotle, by Politis]
11253 A 'material' cause/explanation is the form of whatever is the source [Aristotle, by Politis]
13107 Causes produce a few things in their own right, and innumerable things coincidentally [Aristotle]
19425 In the schools the Four Causes are just lumped together in a very obscure way [Leibniz]
8367 Causation is defined in terms of a single sequence, and constant conjunction is no part of it [Ducasse]
15823 Some propose a distinct 'agent causation', as well as 'event causation' [Chisholm]
17689 Absences might be effects, but surely not causes? [Armstrong]
8435 Causes are between events ('the explosion') or between facts/states of affairs ('a bomb dropped') [Bennett]
15253 If the concept of a cause includes its usual effects, we call it a 'power' [Harré/Madden]
15555 Explaining match lighting in general is like explaining one lighting of a match [Lewis]
8388 Causation is either direct realism, Humean reduction, non-Humean reduction or theoretical realism [Tooley]
8389 Causation distinctions: reductionism/realism; Humean/non-Humean states; observable/non-observable [Tooley]
11960 Singular causation is prior to general causation; each aspirin produces the aspirin generalization [Molnar]
4071 Causation can be seen in counterfactual terms, or as increased probability, or as energy flow [Crane]
4789 Three divisions of causal theories: generalist/singularist, intrinsic/extrinsic, reductive/non-reductive [Psillos]
17528 The dispositional account explains causation, as stimulation and manifestation of dispositions [Bird]
16722 Scholastic causation is by changes in the primary qualities of hot, cold, wet, dry [Pasnau]
22605 Humeans describe the surface of causation, while powers accounts aim at deeper explanations [Ingthorsson]
22607 Time and space are not causal, but they determine natural phenomena [Ingthorsson]