Metaphysical Causation: Metaphysical Causation

There is a systematic and suggestive analogy between grounding and causation. In my view, this analogy is no coincidence. Grounding and causation are alike because grounding is a type of causation: metaphysical causation. In this paper I defend the identification of grounding with metaphysical causation, drawing on the causation literature to explore systematic connections between grounding and metaphysical dependence counterfactuals, and I outline a non-reductive counterfactual theory of grounding along interventionist lines.

[1]  P. Menzies,et al.  The Oxford Handbook of Causation , 2009 .

[2]  K. Ward PHILOSOPHY OF SPACE AND TIME , 1968 .

[3]  N. Cartwright Causation: One Word, Many Things , 2004, Philosophy of Science.

[4]  Phil Dowe,et al.  Wesley Salmon's Process Theory of Causality and the Conserved Quantity Theory , 1992, Philosophy of Science.

[5]  Christopher R. Hitchcock The Intransitivity of Causation Revealed In Equations and Graphs , 2001 .

[6]  Sydney Shoemaker,et al.  Causality and Properties , 1980 .

[7]  Karen Bennett Why the Exclusion Problem Seems Intractable, and How, Just Maybe, to Tract It , 2003 .

[8]  R. Cook The No-No Paradox Is a Paradox , 2011 .

[9]  C. Daly Scepticism about grounding , 2012 .

[10]  Franz von Kutschera,et al.  Causation , 1993, J. Philos. Log..

[11]  Stephan Leuenberger,et al.  Grounding and Necessity , 2014 .

[12]  Christian List,et al.  NONREDUCTIVE PHYSICALISM AND THE LIMITS OF THE EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE , 2009 .

[13]  E. Sober Two Concepts of Cause , 1984, PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association.

[14]  J. Schaffer Two conceptions of sparse properties , 2004 .

[15]  Shoemaker Sydney,et al.  Causal and Metaphysical Necessity , 1998 .

[16]  William Todd Causes and Counterfactuals , 1968 .

[17]  Donald Nute,et al.  Counterfactuals , 1975, Notre Dame J. Formal Log..

[18]  James Woodward,et al.  Interventionism and Causal Exclusion , 2015 .

[19]  Gideon Rosen,et al.  Metaphysical Dependence: Grounding and Reduction , 2009 .

[20]  Theodore Sider,et al.  Writing the Book of the World , 2011 .

[21]  David Lewis Counterfactual Dependence and Time's Arrow , 1979 .

[22]  Phil Turner,et al.  A Question of Realism , 2004, User Interfaces for All.

[23]  Willard Van Orman Quine,et al.  On empirically equivalent systems of the world , 1975 .

[24]  Ned Hall Two Concepts of Causation , 2001 .

[25]  Williamson,et al.  Grounding Entails Counterpossible Non-Triviality , 2016 .

[26]  Adam Elga,et al.  Statistical Mechanics and the Asymmetry of Counterfactual Dependence , 2001, Philosophy of Science.

[27]  Christopher Hitchcock,et al.  Of Humean Bondage , 2003, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.

[28]  Marc Lange,et al.  A One Category Ontology , 2011 .

[29]  Josh Parsons,et al.  There is no ‘truthmaker’ argument against nominalism , 1999 .

[30]  Graham Priest,et al.  Towards non-being : the logic and metaphysics of intentionality , 2005 .

[31]  Michael Grüninger,et al.  Introduction , 2002, CACM.

[32]  Bob Hale,et al.  Relative Necessity Reformulated , 2017, J. Philos. Log..

[33]  Stephen Yablo,et al.  Advertisement for a sketch of an outline of a proto-theory of causation , 2004 .

[34]  David Fair,et al.  Causation and the flow of energy , 1979 .

[35]  M. Strevens Causality Reunified , 2013 .

[36]  Rachael Briggs,et al.  Truthmaking without necessitation , 2012, Synthese.

[37]  Elizabeth Barnes Symmetric Dependence , 2018, Oxford Scholarship Online.

[38]  Peter Railton,et al.  Probability, explanation, and information , 1981, Synthese.

[39]  J. Bennett,et al.  Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding , 2010 .

[40]  Karen Bennett,et al.  Construction area (no hard hat required) , 2011 .

[41]  Amie L. Thomasson Fiction and metaphysics , 1998 .

[42]  Jessica M. Wilson No Work for a Theory of Grounding , 2014 .

[43]  David Liebesman CAUSATION AND THE CANBERRA PLAN , 2011 .

[44]  Max Kistler,et al.  Interventionism and Causal Exclusion , 2008 .

[45]  Alastair Wilson Schaffer on laws of nature , 2013 .

[46]  Alexander Skiles,et al.  Against Grounding Necessitarianism , 2015 .

[47]  D. Lewis Causation as Influence , 2000 .

[48]  C. S. Jenkins,et al.  Is Metaphysical Dependence Irreflexive , 2011 .

[49]  The Metaphysics of Causal Models , 2008 .

[50]  Daniel Nolan,et al.  Impossible Worlds: A Modest Approach , 1997, Notre Dame J. Formal Log..

[51]  Jonathan Schaffer,et al.  Grounding in the image of causation , 2015, Philosophical Studies.

[52]  S. Yablo Cause and essence , 1992, Synthese.

[53]  F. Ramsey,et al.  Facts and Propositions , 1927 .

[54]  K. Koslicki The Coarse-Grainedness of Grounding , 2015 .

[55]  E. J. Lowe,et al.  The four-category ontology , 2006 .

[56]  N. Cartwright Causal Laws and Effective Strategies , 1979 .

[57]  Rachael Briggs,et al.  Interventionist counterfactuals , 2012 .

[58]  W. Salmon Causality without Counterfactuals , 1994, Philosophy of Science.

[59]  Bradford Skow Are There Non-Causal Explanations (of Particular Events)? , 2014, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science.

[60]  J. Goodman An Extended Lewis/Stalnaker Semantics and the New Problem of Counterpossibles , 2004 .

[61]  Karen Bennett Two axes of actualism , 2005 .

[62]  Michael J. Raven,et al.  New work for a theory of ground* , 2017 .

[63]  J. Woodward,et al.  Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World , 1988 .

[64]  Theodore Sider,et al.  Maximality and Intrinsic Properties , 2001 .

[65]  H. Thomson Making things up , 2016 .

[66]  K. Lawlor Exploring the Stability of Belief: Resiliency and Temptation , 2014 .

[67]  J. Schaffer Contrastive Causation , 2006 .