Physical Causation [Paperback]

This book, published in 2000, discusses in a systematic way, a positive account of causation.Physical Causation discusses in a systematic way an original, positive account of causation: the conserved quantities account of causal processes which Phil Dowe has been developing over the last ten years. Dowe offers a clear and original account of causation based firmly in contemporary science. This is an important, original book that will be widely discussed among philosophers and students working in contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of science, and also scientists with an interest in foundational issues.Physical Causation discusses in a systematic way an original, positive account of causation: the conserved quantities account of causal processes which Phil Dowe has been developing over the last ten years. Dowe offers a clear and original account of causation based firmly in contemporary science. This is an important, original book that will be widely discussed among philosophers and students working in contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of science, and also scientists with an interest in foundational issues.Physical Causation discusses in a systematic way an original, positive account of causation: the conserved quantities account of causal processes that Phil Dowe has been developing over the past ten years. Dowe offers a clear and original account of causation based firmly in contemporary science. This is an important, original book that will be widely discussed among philosophers and students working in contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of science, and also scientists with an interest in foundational issues.Acknowledgements; 1. Horses for courses: causation and the task of philosophy; 2. Hume's legacy: regularity, counterfactual and probabilistic theories of causation; 3. Transference theories of causation; 4. Process theories of causation; 5. The conserved quantity theory; 6. Prevention and omission; 7. Connecting causes and effects; 8. The direlß