Abstract
The possibility of apparently negative causation has been discussed in a number of recent works on causation, but the discussion has suffered from beingscattered. In this paper, the problem of apparently negative causation and its attemptedsolutions are examined in more detail. I discuss and discard three attempts that have beensuggested in the literature. My conclusion is negative: Negative causation shows that thetraditional cause & effect view is inadequate. A more unified causal perspective is needed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Aristotle: 1985, ‘Physics', in J. Barnes (ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle,Vol. 1, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Armstrong, D.M.: 1978, A Theory of Universals, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Armstrong, D. M.: 1997, A World of States of Affairs, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Bacon, J.: 1995, Universals and Property Instances, Blackwell, London.
Botterell, A.: 1998, ‘Mellor on Negative Properties', The Philosophical Quarterly 48, 523–526.
Dowe, P.: 1999, ‘Prevention and Omission', Centre Discussion Paper Series, Vol. 41, No. 98, LSE Centre for the Philosophy of the Natural and Social Sciences, London.
Edgington, D.: 1997, ‘Mellor on Chance and Causation', Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 48, 411–433.
Hume, D.: 1777/1902, Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Kim, J.: 1973, ‘Causation, Nomic Subsumption, and the Concept of Event', The Journal of Philosophy 70(8), 217–236.
Kim, J.: 1980, ‘Events as Property Exemplifications', in Brand and Walton (eds.), Action Theory, Reidel, Dordrecht.
Lewis, D.: 1973a, ‘Causation', The Journal of Philosophy 70(17), 556–567.
Lewis, D.: 1973b, Counterfactuals, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Lewis, D.: 1986, Philosophical Papers, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Lewis, D.: 1999, ‘Causation as Influence', The Journal of Philosophy 4, 182–197.
Mellor, D. H.: 1991, ‘Properties and predicates', in Matters of Metaphysics, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 170–182.
Mellor, D. H.: 1995, The Facts of Causation, Routledge, London.
Noordhof, P.: 1998, ‘Causation, Probability, and Chance', Mind 107(428), 855–975.
Oliver, A.: 1992, ‘Could there be Conjunctive Universals?', Analysis 52, 97–103.
Persson, J.: 1997, Causal Facts, Thales, Stockholm.
Persson, J.: 2000, ‘Examining the Facts', Poznań Studies in the Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities 76, 87–107.
Persson, J. and N.-E. Sahlin: 1999, ‘A Fundamental Problem of Causation (with no Solution)', in S. Halldén, B. Hansson, W. Rabinowicz and N.-E. Sahlin (eds), Spinning Ideas: Electronic Essays Dedicated to Peter Gärdenfors on his Fiftieth Birthday, http://www.lucs.lu.se/spinning/.
Ramsey, F. P.: 1925/1954, ‘Universals', in R. B. Braithwaite (ed.), The Foundations of Mathematics, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, pp. 112–134.
Strawson, G.: 1989, The Secret Connexion, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Suppes, P.: 1970, A Probabilistic Theory of Causality, North-Holland, Amsterdam. Department of Philosophy
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Persson, J. Cause, Effect, And Fake Causation. Synthese 131, 129–143 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015055126092
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015055126092