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Central Problems of Philosophy
Causation and Explanation
In the section on laws of nature, Psillos considers both the regularity view of laws and laws as relations among universals as well as alternative approaches to laws. In the final section on explanation he examines in detail the issues arising from deductive-nomological explanation and statistical explanation before considering the explanation of laws and the metaphysics of explanation. Accessible to students of all levels the author provides an excellent introduction to one of the most enduring problems of philosophy.
- GenresPhilosophy
324 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
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August 24, 2022
2022 updated review: I've just completed re-reading this book. I still think overall it is a good book on causation. For all I know there may be newer books on this topic now, but if not it is still a good general resource on causation, laws of nature and explanation.
There is one thing to be aware of. The book is littered with acronyms. Acronyms are useful shorthand, but only if you know what they stand for. When these acronyms are introduced the author defines the acronym. That's great, but if you are like me and lack a perfect memory for acronyms on reading the definition only once, when the acronym comes up again you may be a little lost. There is a useful table of them right at the front of the book, but if, again like me, you don't find this table first thing, then it can be confusing!
original review: This is a well written book, which whilst the contents are not individually original, brings together a great summary of the philosophy of causation, laws of nature and explanation. These topics fit very nicely together.
Thinking about causation and ideas about laws of nature are closely related, but unfortunately are usually dealt with in separate areas of philosophy - metaphyics and methodology (or philosophy of science) respectively. Most books seem to fit into one or other category, and I have found nothing else which deals with both causation and laws of nature. This is fairly irritating as in studying or reading about them there is much common material (e.g. Hume). There are lots of overlaps and similarities between the ideas underlying theories of causation and laws of nature. If you are interested in one of these topics, you are probably interested in the other - so bringing them together is very helpful.
There are omissions in the book, which are unfortunate, but I guess a book can only be so long. For instance, it would be useful to have more on indeterminate and probabilistic causation.
There is one thing to be aware of. The book is littered with acronyms. Acronyms are useful shorthand, but only if you know what they stand for. When these acronyms are introduced the author defines the acronym. That's great, but if you are like me and lack a perfect memory for acronyms on reading the definition only once, when the acronym comes up again you may be a little lost. There is a useful table of them right at the front of the book, but if, again like me, you don't find this table first thing, then it can be confusing!
original review: This is a well written book, which whilst the contents are not individually original, brings together a great summary of the philosophy of causation, laws of nature and explanation. These topics fit very nicely together.
Thinking about causation and ideas about laws of nature are closely related, but unfortunately are usually dealt with in separate areas of philosophy - metaphyics and methodology (or philosophy of science) respectively. Most books seem to fit into one or other category, and I have found nothing else which deals with both causation and laws of nature. This is fairly irritating as in studying or reading about them there is much common material (e.g. Hume). There are lots of overlaps and similarities between the ideas underlying theories of causation and laws of nature. If you are interested in one of these topics, you are probably interested in the other - so bringing them together is very helpful.
There are omissions in the book, which are unfortunate, but I guess a book can only be so long. For instance, it would be useful to have more on indeterminate and probabilistic causation.
Displaying 1 of 1 review