Causation The Constant Conjunction Theory

Two Questions First Question: What are the causal relata? Events Things Agents Examples The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius caused the destruction of Pompeii. The iceberg caused the Titanic to sink. You caused the water to spill.

Two Questions Second Question: What is causation? What conditions are individually necessary and jointly sufficient for one event to be a cause of another? Necessarily, for any events c and e, c is a cause of e iff.

Two Questions The importance of the questions Theoretical Practical The difficulty of the questions Constant Conjunction Counterfactuals Manipulability Transference Covering Laws

The Constant Conjunction Theory W e may define a cause to be an object followed by another, and where all the objects, similar to the first, are followed by objects similar to the second. Or, in other words, where, if the first object had not been, the second never had existed. -David Hume, Enquiry, section VII

The Constant Conjunction Theory The Constant Conjunction Theory: Necessarily, for any events c and e, c is a cause of e iff there are event kinds F and G such that c is an F, e is a G, and every F- event is followed by a G-event. Example: The dropping caused the falling.

The Constant Conjunction Theory The Constant Conjunction Theory: Necessarily, for any events c and e, c is a cause of e iff there are event kinds F and G such that c is an F, e is a G, and every F- event is followed by a G-event. Objection #1: Lucky Conjunction

The Constant Conjunction Theory The Constant Conjunction Theory: Necessarily, for any events c and e, c is a cause of e iff there are event kinds F and G such that c is an F, e is a G, and every F- event is followed by a G-event. Objection #2: Epiphenomena

The Counterfactual Theory W e may define a cause to be an object followed by another, and where all the objects, similar to the first, are followed by objects similar to the second. Or, in other words, where, if the first object had not been, the second never had existed.

The Counterfactual Theory The Counterfactual Theory: Necessarily, for any events c and e, c is a cause of e iff, if c had not occurred, then e would not have occurred. The dropping caused the falling. My dance didn’t cause the leaf to fall from the distant tree. The barometer’s falling didn’t cause the storm.