Causation and counterfactuals pdf files

The counterfactual analysis of causation became a focus of philosophical debate after. This talk explores the counterfactual conception of causation, which is the idea that an event c causes. Causation and counterfactuals university of michigan. Counterfactuals university of california, berkeley. Such approaches come in different forms, and can be arrived at via different routes. Marianne talbot gives the second talk in a series on the nature of causation at oxford.

Paul among the many philosophers who hold that causal facts1 are to be explained in terms ofor. Pdf causation, counterfactuals and competitive advantage. These counterfactuals are of the form if a were the case pr c would be x, where the counterfactual is an ordinary wouldcounterfactual, interpreted according to the semantics above, and the pr operator is a probability operator with narrow scope confined to the consequent of the counterfactual. Hpsc0084 causality, mechanism and evidence in science 201920 session phyllis. Causation chapter 5 humean reductionism counterfactual. Lewiss counterfactual theory of causation christian loew. In this paper, we define epistemological conditions that help to dispel some of this confusion and to provide a basis for more developed approaches. A cause, according to lewis in his 1973 article causation, was something that makes a difference, and the difference it makes must be a difference from what would have happened without it. And can there be an adequate theory of explanation. Lewis argues that causation is transitive whereas counterfactual dependence is not transitive.