From Cause to Causation A Peircean Perspective
From Cause to Causation presents both a critical analysis of C.S. Peirce's conception of causation, and a novel approach to causation, based upon the semeiotic of Peirce. The book begins with a review of the history of causation, and with a critical discu
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PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES SERIES VOLUME 90
Founded by Wilfrid S. Sellars and Keith Lehrer
Editor
Keith Lehrer, University ofArizona, Tucson Associate Editor
Stewart Cohen, Arizona State University, Tempe Board of Consulting Editors
Lynne Rudder Baker, University of Massachusetts at Amherst Radu Bogdan, Tulane University, New Orleans Marian David, University of Notre Dame Allan Gibbard, University of Michigan Denise Meyerson, University of Cape Town Fran~ois
Recanati, Institut Jean-Nicod, EHESS, Paris Stuart Silvers, Clemson University
Barry Smith, State University of New York at Buffalo Nicholas D. Smith, Michigan State University
The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
FROM CAUSE TO CAUSATION A Peircean Perspective
by
MENNO HULSWIT Heyendaallnstitute, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA,B.V.
A c.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4020-0977-8
ISBN 978-94-010-0297-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-010-0297-4
Printed on acid-free paper
AII Rights Reserved © 2002 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Origina1ly published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2002 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2002 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
ix
Note on References
Xl
Preface
Xlll
CHAPTER 1: SOME KEY MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CONCEPT OF CAUSATION
1
1
Causation in Ancient Greece
2
1 Aristotle: Four Types of Explanation
2
2 The Stoics: Causation, Exceptionless Regularity, and Necessity
5
Causation in the Middle Ages
8
1 Thomas Aquinas
8
2 3
4
Causation in Modem Philosophy
15
1 The Metaphysical Systems from Descartes till Leibniz
17
2 Critical Philosophy from Locke till Mill
27
Conclusion: Important Changes in the Meaning of Cause
41
CHAPTER 2: CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO CAUSATION
47
The Contemporary Debate
47
1 Necessary and/or Sufficient Conditions
47
2 Causes and Counterfactual Dependency
54
3 The Instrumental Approach: Causes as Means-to-Ends
56
4 Probabilistic Causation
58
5 The Singularist Approach
60
v
vi 2
3
CONTENTS Basic Issues in the Contemporary Approaches to Causation
64
1 Five Fundamental Requirements
64
2 The Relata of the Causal Relation
67
3 Further Issues
71
Conclusion
73
CHAPTER 3: PEIRCE ON FINAL CAUSATION
75
1
Introduction
75
2
Peirce's Conception of Final Causation
76
1 The Nature of Final Causation
76
2 Final Causation and Efficient Causation
80
3 Teleological and Mechanistic Processes; Peirce's Rejection of Dualism
3
82
4 Teleology and Objective Chance
84
5 Teleology as Creative; Develo
