Cause And Chance

Cause and Chance Causation is one of the oldest topics in philosophy, and has been a central problem for philosophers since David Hume. Most of the work done in this area has attempted to understand causation in deterministic worlds. But what about the unpredictable and chancy world we actually live in? Cause and Chance: Causation in an Indeterministic World is a collection of specially written papers by world-class metaphysicians. Its focus is the problems facing the dominant ‘reductionist’ approach to causation: the attempt to cover all types of causation, deterministic and indeterministic, with one basic theory appealing to the notion of chance-raising. This collection focuses on the two most substantial challenges the approach faces: the claim that chance-raising theories fail without an independent appeal to the notion of causal processes; and the claim that the standard practice of using counterfactuals to explain chance-raising doesn’t work because counterfactuals themselves must be characterized in terms of causation. Cause and Chance raises a number of further difficulties for reductive analyses and offers various ways of defending the chance-raising approach. Contributors: Stephen Barker, Helen Beebee, Phil Dowe, Dorothy Edgington, Doug Ehring, Chris Hitchcock, Igal Kvart, Paul Noordhof, Murali Ramachandran, Michael Tooley. Phil Dowe is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Queensland, and the author of Physical Causation (2000). Paul Noordhof is Reader in Philosophy at the University of Nottingham, and the author of A Variety of Causes (forthcoming). International Library of Philosophy Edited by José Luis Bermúdez, Tim Crane and Peter Sullivan Advisory Board: Jonathan Barnes, Fred Dretske, Frances Kamm, Brian Leiter, Huw Price and Sydney Shoemaker Recent titles in the ILP: The Facts of Causation D.H. Mellor The Conceptual Roots of Mathematics J.R. Lucas Stream of Consciousness Barry Dainton Knowledge and Reference in Empirical Science Jody Azzouni Reason Without Freedom David Owens The Price of Doubt N.M.L. Nathan Matters of Mind Scott Sturgeon Logic, Form and Grammar Peter Long The Metaphysicians of Meaning Gideon Makin Logical Investigations, Vols I & Il Edmund Husserl Truth Without Objectivity Max Kölbel Departing from Frege Mark Sainsbury The Importance of Being Understood Adam Morton Art and Morality Edited by José Luis Bermúdez and Sebastian Gardner Noble in Reason, Infinite in Faculty A.W. Moore Cause and Chance Causation in an Indeterministic World Edited by Phil Dowe and Paul Noordhof First published 2004 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. © 2004 Selection and editorial matter, Phil Dowe and Paul Noordhof. Individual essays, the contributors. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Cause and chance : causation in an indeterministic world / edited by Phil Dowe and Paul Noordhof.