Causal necessity and logical necessity
Philosophical Studies 28 (2):185 - 194 (1975)
| Abstract | Myles Brand and Marshall Swain advocate the principle that if A is the set of conditions individually necessary and jointly sufficient for the occurrence of B, then if C is a set of conditions individually necessary for the occurrence of B, every member of C is a member of A. I agree with John Barker and Risto Hilpinen who each argue that this principle is not true for causal necessity and sufficiency, but I disagree with their claim that it is true for logical necessity and sufficiency. The original appeal of the principle may be due to confusing two kinds of totality: to say that when every member of set A obtains, then every condition necessary for E obtains is not to say that every condition necessary for E is a member of A. All the authors mentioned believe that causal necessity precludes logical necessity. I deny this on the basis of an example from kinematics. Hume has not refuted definitions of causation in terms of logically necessary and sufficient conditions, nor have Brand and Swain. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,701 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesFabrice Correia (2011). On the Reduction of Necessity to Essence. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 84 (3):639-653.
Yuval Steinitz (2001). The Logical Paradox of Causation. Journal of Philosophical Research 26:223-227.
Sundar Sarukkai (2011). Possible Ideas of Necessity in Indian Logic. Journal of Philosophical Logic 40 (5):563-582.
Scott A. Shalkowski (1992). Supervenience and Causal Necessity. Synthese 90 (1):55-87.
Myles Brand & Marshall Swain (1976). Causation and Causal Necessity: Reply to Sanford. Philosophical Studies 29 (6):369 - 379.
Milton Fisk (1970). Are There Necessary Connections in Nature? Philosophy of Science 37 (3):385-404.
Royce P. Jones (1985). The Logical Status of Brain Death Criteria. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 10 (4).
David H. Sanford (1978). Causal Necessity and Logical Necessity. Philosophical Studies 33 (2):185 - 194.
Marc Lange (2005). A Counterfactual Analysis of the Concepts of Logical Truth and Necessity. Philosophical Studies 125 (3):277 - 303.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads34 ( #35,368 of 549,128 )Recent downloads (6 months)2 ( #37,390 of 549,128 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
