Single Idea 8436

[catalogued under 26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 1. Causation]

Full Idea

We must choose between subsumption and counterfactual analyses of causal statements. The former means that cause and effect have some properties that enables them to be subsumed under a conditional. The latter is just 'if no-c then no-e'.

Gist of Idea

Either cause and effect are subsumed under a conditional because of properties, or it is counterfactual

Source

Jonathan Bennett (Event Causation: counterfactual analysis [1987], p.217)

Book Reference

'Causation', ed/tr. Sosa,E. /Tooley,M. [OUP 1993], p.217


A Reaction

I have an immediate preference for the former account, which seems to potentially connect it with physics and features of the world which make one thing lead to another. The counterfactual account seems very thin, and is more like mere semantics.