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Metaphysics

Causation

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Mario Günther developed a research program on causation based on his strengthened Ramsey Test for conditionals (see Logic & Philosophy of Language): you believe A >> C' if and only if, after suspending judgment on the antecedent A and the consequent C, you come to believe C if you assume A.   

Epochetic Theories

Theories of causation are epochetic if they employ the idea of suspending judgment. ​

  • "Causation in Terms of Production" (Philosophical Studies, with Holger Andreas) works out the idea that C is a cause of E if and only if C and E occur, C >> E, and some further constraints.
         

  • "A Ramsey Test Analysis of Causation for Causal Models" (British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, with Holger Andreas) translates the above analysis of causation into Joseph Halpern and Judea Pearl's framework of causal models.  
     

  • "Actual Causation" (Dialectica, with Holger Andreas) refines the analysis of causation in our framework of causal models and favourably compares it to counterfactual accounts.   
     

  • "Factual Difference-Making" (Australasian Philosophical Review, with Holger Andreas) 
    Lead Article
    This article further refines our analysis of causation, gives it a worldly interpretation, and argues that causes are better understood as factual difference-makers rather than counterfactual ones. 

     

  • "Reply to Commentaries on 'Factual Difference-Making'(Australasian Philosophical Review, with Holger Andreas) responds to the commentaries by refining our condition of deviancy and indeterminate interventions. 

 

  • "From Reasons to Causes: A Theory of Causation" (Cambridge University Press, with Holger Andreas) develops a reductive theory of causation which outperforms extant approaches by explaining virtually all judgements of actual causation.     

Counterfactual Theories

  • "Difference-Making Causation" (Journal of Philosophy, with Holger Andreas) puts forth a counterfactual analysis of causation using the idea of suspending judgment.  
     

  • "Counterfactuals for Causal Responsibility in Legal Contexts" (Artificial Intelligence and Law, with Holger Andreas and Matthias Armgardt) refines the counterfactual approach to causal responsibility in legal contexts, including scenarios of multi-agent interaction. 

 

​Regularity Theories

  • "A Regularity Theory of Causation" (Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, with Holger Andreas) proposes a regularity theory which aims to be reductive. It is the first regularity theory that can account for omissions and scenarios which suggest that causation is not transitive.

 

  • "A Lewisian Regularity Theory" (Philosophical Studies, with Holger Andreas)  presents a challenge to the reductiveness of modern regularity theories, including the above one, refines our regularity theory, and favourably compares it to the leading regularity theories and counterfactual accounts.   
     

  • "Regularity and Inferential Theories of Causation" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, with Holger Andreas) reviews the regularity-theoretic approach from Hume to contemporary regularity theories and their inferential successors, including the above epochetic approach. 

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©2017 BY MARIO GÜNTHER.

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