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26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 2. Types of cause

[categories of links between successive events]

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