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Single Idea 8405
[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 5. Direction of causation
]
Full Idea
Lewis thinks it is a major defect in a theory of causation that it builds in the condition that the time of the cause precede that of the effect: that cause precedes effect is something we ought to explain (which his counterfactual theory claims to do).
Gist of Idea
A theory of causation should explain why cause precedes effect, not take it for granted
Source
report of David Lewis (Causation [1973]) by Hartry Field - Causation in a Physical World
Book Ref
'The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics', ed/tr. Loux,M /Zimmerman,D [OUP 2005], p.454
A Reaction
My immediate reaction is that the chances of explaining such a thing are probably nil, and that we might as well just accept the direction of causation as a given. Even philosophers balk at the question 'why doesn't time go backwards?'
The
15 ideas
from 'Causation'
9476
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If dispositions are more fundamental than causes, then they won't conceptually reduce to them
[Bird on Lewis]
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8405
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A theory of causation should explain why cause precedes effect, not take it for granted
[Lewis, by Field,H]
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10392
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It is just individious discrimination to pick out one cause and label it as 'the' cause
[Lewis]
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17525
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The counterfactual view says causes are necessary (rather than sufficient) for their effects
[Lewis, by Bird]
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17524
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Lewis has basic causation, counterfactuals, and a general ancestral (thus handling pre-emption)
[Lewis, by Bird]
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8397
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Counterfactual causation implies all laws are causal, which they aren't
[Tooley on Lewis]
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4795
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Lewis's account of counterfactuals is fine if we know what a law of nature is, but it won't explain the latter
[Cohen,LJ on Lewis]
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8419
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The modern regularity view says a cause is a member of a minimal set of sufficient conditions
[Lewis]
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8420
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A proposition is a set of possible worlds where it is true
[Lewis]
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8421
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Regularity analyses could make c an effect of e, or an epiphenomenon, or inefficacious, or pre-empted
[Lewis]
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8423
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My counterfactual analysis applies to particular cases, not generalisations
[Lewis]
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8424
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Determinism says there can't be two identical worlds up to a time, with identical laws, which then differ
[Lewis]
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8425
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For true counterfactuals, both antecedent and consequent true is closest to actuality
[Lewis]
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8426
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One event causes another iff there is a causal chain from first to second
[Lewis]
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8427
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I reject making the direction of causation axiomatic, since that takes too much for granted
[Lewis]
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