Causation in contemporary analytical philosophy

Max Kistler (1)

1 IJN - Institut Jean-Nicod

Contemporary analytic philosophy is in the midst of a vigorous debate on the nature of causation. Each of the main proposals discussed in this chapter faces important problems: the deductive-nomological model, the counterfactual theory, the manipulability theory, the probabilistic theory and the transference theory. After having explored possible solutions to these problems, I conclude that one version of the transference approach is most promising. However, as I show in the last section, it is necessary to supplement this transference approach with the notion of lawful dependency. This gives rise to the notion of causal responsibility.

Mots clés: Causation; law of nature; transference; conserved quantity; probability; counterfactuals; manipulability; causal responsibility; event; fact

Max Kistler. Causation in contemporary analytical philosophy. Costantino Esposito, Pasquale Porro. La Causalità-La Causalité-Die Kausalität-Causality, Brepols, pp.635-668, 2002. ⟨ijn_00000404⟩