Getting Causes from Powers

by Stephen Mumford, Rani Lill Anjum

Causation is everywhere in the it features in every science and technology. But how much do we truly understand it? Do we know what it means to say that one thing is a cause of another and do we understand what in the world drives causation? Getting Causes from Powers develops a new and original theory of causation based on an ontology of real powers or dispositions. Others have already suggested that this ought to be possible, but no one has yet performed the detailed work. Stephen Mumford and Rani Lill Anjum argue here that the completed theory will not look exactly as anyone has yet anticipated, and that a thoroughly dispositional theory of causation has some surprising features, for instance with respect to modality. The book is not restricted to the metaphysics of causation, but treats a variety of topics such as explanation, perception, modelling, the logic of causal claims, transitivity, and nonlinearity, and the empirical credentials of the theory are tested with
reference to biology.

Genres: Philosophy, Metaphysics, Science

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2011

Reviews

[Marty · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is book to get if you're tired of Humean (Causal Primitivist), Lewisian (Counter-Factual ) and Russellian (Eliminativist) accounts of causation. And let's face it, you are! You wouldn't be reading this if you aren't already dissatisfied with accounts of causation in the analytic tradition. Mumford & Anjum offers some real objections to these, and have a promising alternative with powers.

Tired of carving up the world into necessity and possibility? Powers are the modal sweet in-between!

They also has clever, clever rebuttals to event-based causation and necessitarian accounts of causation. They got based top-down views of causation to answers those pesky mechanistic bottom-up approaches. You want this for agency and biology!

We got simultaneity in causation! That is, why cause and effect don't occur at different time-slices. We got solutions to the "problem of induction!"

Mumford & Anjum, you're the man/woman!

[Jesse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal! One of the best books I've read on causation! Must read for anyone interested in metaphysics.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

First full-length dispositional account of efficient causation. Lots to think about!