In a recent paper in this journal, Federica Russo and Jon Williamson argue that an analysis of causality in terms of probabilistic relationships does not do justice to the use of mechanistic evidence to support causal claims. I will present Ronald Giere s theory of probabilistic causation, and show that it can account for the use of mechanistic evidence (both in the health sciences on which Rus...

 Several authors have argued that act-utilitarianism cannot provide an adequate critique of buying meat because a single meat purchase will not actually cause more farm animals to be raised or slaughtered. Thus, regardless of whether or not the production of meat is inhumane to animals, someone who buys meat is doing nothing wrong. This argument fails to show that meat purchases are mor...

Abstract According to the so-called ‘proportionality principle’, causes should be proportional their effects: they both enough and not too much for occurrence of effects. This principle is subject an ongoing debate. On one hand, many maintain that it required address problem causal exclusion take capture a crucial aspect causation. other object renders accounts causation implausibly restrictive...

It is generally accepted that the most serious threat to the possibility of mental causation is posed by the causal self-sufficiency of physical causal processes. I argue, however, that this feature of the world, which I articulate in principle I call Completeness, in fact poses no genuine threat to mental causation. Some find Completeness threatening to mental causation because they confuse it...

This paper aims to bridge philosophical and psychological research on causation, counterfactual thought, the problem of backtracking. Counterfactual approaches causation such as that by Lewis have ruled out backtracking, while prominent models causal inference interventionist counterfactuals do not backtrack. However, various formal models, certain backtracking end up being true, evidence shows...

In The Biopsychosocial Model of Health and Disease, Derek Bolton Grant Gillett argue that a defensible updated version the biopsychosocial model requires metaphysically adequate account disease causation can accommodate biological, psychological, social factors. This present paper offers philosophical critique their causation. I relies on claims about normativity semantic content biological inf...

Abstract This paper is concerned with the content of causal proportionality constraint. It investigates two general versions constraint, namely “horizontal” and “vertical” proportionality. Moreover, it discusses whether considered an ontic or epistemic, i.e. explanatory, constraint on causation in context some most prominent theories causation. The following main claims are defended: (1) horizo...

Causation by omission is instantiated when an effect occurs from an absence, as in The absence of nicotine causes withdrawal or Not watering the plant caused it to wilt. The phenomenon has been viewed as an insurmountable problem for process theories of causation, which specify causation in terms of conserved quantities, like force, but not for theories that specify causation in terms of statis...