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• 1. Introduction
• 2. Regularity Theories of Causation
• 3. Interlude: Some Important Background
• 4. Counterfactual Theories of Causation
• 5. Probabilistic Causation
• 6. Conclusion.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This Element provides an accessible introduction to the contemporary philosophy of causation. It introduces the reader to central concepts and distinctions (type vs token causation, probabilistic vs deterministic causation, difference-making, interventions, overdetermination, pre-emption) and to key tools (structural equations, graphs, probabilistic causal models) drawn upon in the contemporary debate. The aim is to fuel the reader's interest in causation, and to equip them with the resources to contribute to the debate themselves. The discussion is historically informed and outward-looking. 'Historically informed' in that concise accounts of key historical contributions to the understanding of causation set the stage for an examination of the latest research. 'Outward looking' in that illustrations are provided of how the philosophy of causation relates to issues in the sciences, law, and elsewhere. The aim is to show why the study of causation is of critical importance, besides being fascinating in its own right.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Contents Foreword
• Chapter 1: The Normative and the Descriptive
• Chapter 2: Theories of Causation
• Chapter 3: Methods for Investigating Causal Cognition: Armchair Philosophy, X-Phi and Empirical Psychology
• Chapter 4: Some Empirical Results Concerning Causal Learning and Representation
• Chapter 5: Invariance
• Chapter 6: Invariance Applied
• Chapter 7: Invariance: Experimental Results from Cheng, Lombrozo and Others
• Chapter 8: Proportionality References.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

The past few decades have seen an explosion of research on causal reasoning in philosophy, computer science, and statistics, as well as descriptive work in psychology. In Causation with a Human Face, James Woodward integrates these lines of research and argues for an understanding of how each can inform the other: normative ideas can suggest interesting experiments, while descriptive results can suggest important normative concepts. Woodward's overall framework builds on the interventionist treatment of causation that he developed in Making Things Happen. Normative ideas discussed include proposals about the role of invariant or stable relationships in successful causal reasoning and the notion of proportionality. He argues that these normative ideas are reflected in the causal judgments that people actually make as a descriptive matter. Woodward also discusses the common philosophical practice-particularly salient in philosophical accounts of causation-of appealing to "intuitions" or "judgments about cases" in support of philosophical theses. He explores how, properly understood, such appeals are not different in principle from appeals to results from empirical research, and demonstrates how they may serve as a useful source of information about causal cognition.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Vorbemerkung
• Einleitung und Fragestellung : Was heisst es, dass etwas durch mich geschieht?
• Die Lokalisierung des Anfangs : Aktivität und Aktivitätsbewusstsein
• Aktivität : Erste Schritte
• Aktivität und Wollen
• Zwischenüberlegung : Mentale Handlungen
• Aktivität und das Verursachtsein der archē
• Aktivität und Aktivitätsbewusstsein
• Das Ich und das Wollen
• Die besondere Ichhaftigkeit des Wollens : Wider die prinzipielle Enteignung des Wollens
• Wünsche, die man nicht will
• Das Ich und das unangefochtene Wollen
• Aktivität und Passivität
• Die Vorgeschichte des Wollens : Kausalität, Determination, Manipulation
• Vorbemerkungen : Die Handlungen vor den Handlungen
• Die Ichhaftigkeit einer Handlung : Rekursivität und Genese
• Die Chimäre eines absoluten Anfangs
• Ein Missverständnis über den Determinismus
• Kann es uns stören, im Wollen determiniert zu sein?
• Determination und Manipulation
• Zusammenfassung
• Wollen, offene Optionen und Anders-Können
• Unterlassbarkeit und Anders-Können
• Einige Vorbemerkungen
• Das Überlegen, seine Voraussetzungen und das Können
• Können, Anders-Können, Determinismus
• Weitere Explikationen : Anders-Können und die verschiedenen Arten des Könnens
• Überlegung und Determinismus
• Entscheiden, Optionen, Anders-Können
• Konklusionen : gewollte Handlungen, unterlassbare Handlungen
• Was bedeutet das alles? Ethische Reflexionen
• Der Stachel des "ausserhalb von uns"
• Falsche Vorstellungen, falsche Bilder, falsche Ängste
• Verantwortung, Verdienst, Strafe
• Noch einmal : Was bedeutet das alles?
• Literatur
• Sachregister
• Personenregister

• Benjamin Hill, Henrik Lagerlund, and Stathis Psillos: Introduction
• 1: Stathis Psillos: The Inherence and Directedness of Powers
• 2: Calvin G. Normore: Powers, Possibilities and Time: Notes for a Program
• 3: Henrik Lagerlund: Aristotelian Powers, Mechanism, and Final Causes in the Late Middle Ages
• 4: Deborah Brown: Agency, Force, and Inertia in Descartes and Hobbes
• 5: Benjamin Hill: The Ontological Status of Causal Powers: Substances, Modes, and Humeanism
• 6: Walter Ott: The Case Against Powers
• 7: Andreas Huttemann: The Return of Causal Powers?
• 8: Lisa Downing: Qualities, Powers, and Bare Powers in Locke
• 9: Peter Millican: Hume on Causation and Causal Powers
• 10: Jennifer McKitrick: Resurgent Powers and the Failure of Conceptual Analysis
• 11: Brian Ellis: Causal Powers and Structures
• 12: Howard Sankey: Induction and Natural Kinds Revisited.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Causal powers are returning to the forefront of realist philosophy of science. Once central features of philosophical thinking about the natures of substances and causes, they were banished during the early modern era and the Scientific Revolution. In this volume, distinguished scholars revisit the fortunes of causal powers as scientific explanatory principles within the theories of substance and cause across history. Each chapter focuses on the philosophical roles causal powers were thought to play at the time, and the reasons offered in support, or against, their coherence and ability to perform these roles. By placing rigorous philosophical analyses of thinking about causal powers within their historical contexts, features of their natures which might remain hidden to contemporary practitioners can be more readily identified and more carefully analyzed. The thoughts of such prominent philosophers as Aristotle, Scotus, Ockham, and Buridan are explored, then on through Suarez, Descartes, and Malebranche, to Locke and Hume, and ultimately to contemporary figures like the logical positivists Goodman and Lewis.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Applications of George Ellis's Theory of Causation
• Physical, Logical, and Mental Top-Down Effects / George F. R. Ellis and Markus Gabriel
• Making Sense of Top-Down Causation : Universality and Functional Equivalence in Physics and Biology / Sara Green and Robert W. Batterman
• Mathematics and Measurement : Causation and the Mind / Otávio Bueno
• The View from Physics
• Strong Emergence in Condensed Matter Physic / Barbara Drossel
• On the Topic of Emergence from an Effective Field Theory Perspective
• Thomas Luu and Ulf-G. Meissner
• The View from the Life Sciences
• The Principle of Biological Relativity : Origins and Current Status / Denis Noble
• A Macro Agent and Its Actions / Larissa Albantakis, Francesco Massari, Maggie Beheler-Amass, and Giulio Tononi
• Physics, Determinism, and the Brain / George F. R. Ellis
• The Debate on Top-Down Causation and Emergence
• Downward Causation Defended / James Woodward
• A Pragmatist Perspective on Causation, Laws and Explanation / Richard Healey
• Top-Down Causation Without Levels / Jan Voosholz
• Causation as a High-Level Affair / Simon Friederich and Sach Mukherjee
• Models of Downward Causation / Max Kistler
• Responses
• Responses to Part I : Applications of George Ellis's Theory of Causation / George F. R. Ellis
• Response to Part II : The View from Physics / George F R Ellis
• Response to Part III : The View from the Life Sciences / George F. R. Ellis
• Response to Part IV : The Debate on Top-Down Causation and Emergence / George F. R. Ellis

This book presents the latest research, conducted by leading philosophers and scientists from various fields, on the topic of top-down causation. The chapters combine to form a unique, interdisciplinary perspective, drawing upon George Ellis's extensive research and novel perspectives on topics including downwards causation, weak and strong emergence, mental causation, biological relativity, effective field theory and levels in nature. The collection also serves as a Festschrift in honour of George Ellis' 80th birthday. The extensive and interdisciplinary scope of this book makes it vital reading for anyone interested in the work of George Ellis and current research on the topics of causation and emergence.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1: The Analysis of Causation
• 2: Humean Supervenience and the Possibility of Necessitation
• 3: Counterfactuals and Closeness
• 4: A Counterfactual Analysis of Causation
• 5: The Nontransitivity of Causation
• 6: Causal Circumstances
• 7: The Ontological Categories of Causes
• 8: Negative Causation and the Relationality of Causation
• 9: Property Causation
• 10: Non-Causal Counterfactual Dependence and Intrinsicality
• 11: Processes and Prevention
• 12: Causal nonsymmetry
• 13: Agency, Intervention, and the Past
• 14: Causation and Laws
• 15: The Ontoloty of Chance
• 16: Humean Supervenience and Possible Worlds.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This is the first book length defence of a counterfactual theory of causation. The analysis defended is new. It expresses the idea that, independent of its competitors, a cause raises the chance of an effect over its mean background chance by a complete causal chain. The analysis depends upon a novel development of David Lewis's Theory of Counterfactuals. One consequence of the analysis is that causation is not transitive. Causation is also nonsymmetric. The counterfactual basis of causal nonsymmetry is the result of a number of different, and sometimes interacting, nonsymmetries. The analysis allows for the development of a novel theory of events whose nature is independent of their role in causation and the identification of one other important causal relationship: property causation. Although compatible with Hume's denial of necessary connections between distinct existences, a key feature of the theory is that it benefits from being independent of the Humean framework. There are two ways in which something may be metaphysically fundamental: vertically and horizontally. Many metaphysicians emphasise vertical fundamentality and focus on truth making. The book rejects this emphasis and the truth making approach in particular. Horizontally fundamental metaphysical entities are those that are necessary components in different possible universes. Causation has a claim to be horizontally fundamental: the cement of any universe. Laws are patterns of causation realised in different metaphysical frameworks such as those articulated by Lewis, Armstrong and the powers ontologists. The book recognises varieties of causation both in, for example, counting cases of double prevention and causation by genuine processes as types of causation, and allowing that the analysis identifies causes across these different metaphysical frameworks.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• 1: The Analysis of Causation
• 2: Humean Supervenience and the Possibility of Necessitation
• 3: Counterfactuals and Closeness
• 4: A Counterfactual Analysis of Causation
• 5: The Nontransitivity of Causation
• 6: Causal Circumstances
• 7: The Ontological Categories of Causes
• 8: Negative Causation and the Relationality of Causation
• 9: Property Causation
• 10: Non-Causal Counterfactual Dependence and Intrinsicality
• 11: Processes and Prevention
• 12: Causal nonsymmetry
• 13: Agency, Intervention, and the Past
• 14: Causation and Laws
• 15: The Ontoloty of Chance
• 16: Humean Supervenience and Possible Worlds.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

This is the first book length defence of a counterfactual theory of causation. The analysis defended is new. It expresses the idea that, independent of its competitors, a cause raises the chance of an effect over its mean background chance by a complete causal chain. The analysis depends upon a novel development of David Lewis's Theory of Counterfactuals. One consequence of the analysis is that causation is not transitive. Causation is also nonsymmetric. The counterfactual basis of causal nonsymmetry is the result of a number of different, and sometimes interacting, nonsymmetries. The analysis allows for the development of a novel theory of events whose nature is independent of their role in causation and the identification of one other important causal relationship: property causation. Although compatible with Hume's denial of necessary connections between distinct existences, a key feature of the theory is that it benefits from being independent of the Humean framework. There are two ways in which something may be metaphysically fundamental: vertically and horizontally. Many metaphysicians emphasise vertical fundamentality and focus on truth making. The book rejects this emphasis and the truth making approach in particular. Horizontally fundamental metaphysical entities are those that are necessary components in different possible universes. Causation has a claim to be horizontally fundamental: the cement of any universe. Laws are patterns of causation realised in different metaphysical frameworks such as those articulated by Lewis, Armstrong and the powers ontologists. The book recognises varieties of causation both in, for example, counting cases of double prevention and causation by genuine processes as types of causation, and allowing that the analysis identifies causes across these different metaphysical frameworks.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• PART 1. SCIENCE AND LAWS OF NATURE
• PART 2. CAUSATION AND MODALITY
• PART 3. SPACE, TIME, AND PERSISTENCE
• PART 4. MIND.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Causal powers are ubiquitous. Electrons are negatively charged; they have the power to repel other electrons. Water is a solvent; it has the power to dissolve salt. We use concepts of causal powers and their relatives-dispositions, capacities, abilities, and so on-to describe the world around us, both in everyday life and in scientific practice. But what is it about the world that makes such descriptions apt? On one view, the neo-Humean view, there is nothing intrinsic about, say, negative charge, that makes its bearers have the power to repel other negatively charged particles. Rather, matters extrinsic to negative charge, the patterns and regularities in which negatively charged particles are embedded, fix the powers its bearers have. But on a different view, the anti-Humean view, causal powers are intrinsically powerful, bringing with them their own causal, nomic, and modal nature independent of extrinsic patterns and regularities-even fixing those patterns and regularities. This collection brings together new and important work by both emerging scholars and those who helped shape the field on the nature of causal powers, and the connections between causal powers and other phenomena within metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind. Contributors discuss how one who takes causal powers to be in some sense irreducible should think about laws of nature, scientific practice, causation, modality, space and time, persistence, and the metaphysics of mind.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

Can drinking coffee help people live longer? What makes a stock's price go up? Why did you get the flu? Causal questions like these arise on a regular basis, but most people likely have not thought deeply about how to answer them. This book helps you think about causality in a structured way: What is a cause, what are causes good for, and what is compelling evidence of causality? Author Samantha Kleinberg shows you how to develop a set of tools for thinking more critically about causes. You'll learn how to question claims, identify causes, make decisions based on causal information, and verify causes through further tests. Whether it's figuring out what data you need, or understanding that the way you collect and prepare data affects the conclusions you can draw from it, Why will help you sharpen your causal inference skills.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction
• Tad M. Schmaltz
• Part I Ancient and Medieval
• 1. Aristotle and the Discovery of Efficient Causation, Thomas M. Tuozzo
• Reflection: Representations of Efficient Causation in the Iliad, Tobias Myers
• 2. Efficient Causation in the Stoic Tradition, R. J. Hankinson
• 3. Efficient Causation in Late Antiquity and the Earlier Medieval Era, Ian Wilks
• 4. Efficient Causation: From Ibn Sina to Ockham, Kara Richardson
• Reflection: Efficient Causation and Musical Inspiration, Anna Harwell Celenza
• Part II Modern
• 5. Efficient Causation: From Suarez to Descartes, Tad M. Schmaltz
• 6. Efficient Causation in Spinoza and Leibniz, Martin Lin
• Reflection: Reason, Calculating Machines and Efficient Causation, Matthew L. Jones
• 7. Efficient Causation in Malebranche and Berkeley, Lisa Downing
• 8. Efficient Causation in Hume, P. J. E. Kail
• 9. Efficient Causation in Kant, Eric Watkins
• Part III Contemporary
• 10. Contemporary Efficient Causation: Humean Themes, Douglas Ehring
• Reflection:Efficient Causation in Art, Tina Rivers
• 11. Contemporary Efficient Causation: Aristotelian Themes, Stephen Mumford
• Bibliography
• Pre-20th-Century Sources
• 20th- and 21st-Century Literature
• Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Causation is now commonly supposed to involve a succession that instantiates some law-like regularity. Efficient Causation: A History examines how our modern notion developed from a very different understanding of efficient causation. This volume begins with Aristotle's initial conception of efficient causation, and then considers the transformations and reconsiderations of this conception in late antiquity, medieval and modern philosophy, ending with contemporary accounts of causation. It includes four short "Reflections" that explore the significance of the concept for literature, the history of music, the history of science, and contemporary art theory.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction
• Tad M. Schmaltz
• Part I Ancient and Medieval
• 1. Aristotle and the Discovery of Efficient Causation, Thomas M. Tuozzo
• Reflection: Representations of Efficient Causation in the Iliad, Tobias Myers
• 2. Efficient Causation in the Stoic Tradition, R. J. Hankinson
• 3. Efficient Causation in Late Antiquity and the Earlier Medieval Era, Ian Wilks
• 4. Efficient Causation: From Ibn Sina to Ockham, Kara Richardson
• Reflection: Efficient Causation and Musical Inspiration, Anna Harwell Celenza
• Part II Modern
• 5. Efficient Causation: From Suarez to Descartes, Tad M. Schmaltz
• 6. Efficient Causation in Spinoza and Leibniz, Martin Lin
• Reflection: Reason, Calculating Machines and Efficient Causation, Matthew L. Jones
• 7. Efficient Causation in Malebranche and Berkeley, Lisa Downing
• 8. Efficient Causation in Hume, P. J. E. Kail
• 9. Efficient Causation in Kant, Eric Watkins
• Part III Contemporary
• 10. Contemporary Efficient Causation: Humean Themes, Douglas Ehring
• Reflection:Efficient Causation in Art, Tina Rivers
• 11. Contemporary Efficient Causation: Aristotelian Themes, Stephen Mumford
• Bibliography
• Pre-20th-Century Sources
• 20th- and 21st-Century Literature
• Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Causation is now commonly supposed to involve a succession that instantiates some law-like regularity. Efficient Causation: A History examines how our modern notion developed from a very different understanding of efficient causation. This volume begins with Aristotle's initial conception of efficient causation, and then considers the transformations and reconsiderations of this conception in late antiquity, medieval and modern philosophy, ending with contemporary accounts of causation. It includes four short "Reflections" that explore the significance of the concept for literature, the history of music, the history of science, and contemporary art theory.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Phase 1. Macroanalysis
• phase 2. Microanalysis
• phase 3. Software assisted analysis.

Without cause and effect, there would be no science or technology, no moral responsibility, and no system of law. Causation is therefore the most fundamental connection in the universe and a core topic of philosophical thought. This 'Very Short Introduction' introduces all of the main theories of causation and its key debates

• Ch 1: Introduction Part 1: The Lure of Simple Causality Ch 2: Simple Linear Causality: One Thing Makes Another Happen Ch 3: The Cognitive Science of Simple Causality: Why Do We Get Stuck?
• Part 2: Getting Beyond Simple: A Set of Causal Patterns for the Curriculum Ch 4: Domino Causality: Effects that Become Causes Ch 5: Cyclic Causality: Loops and Feedback Ch 6: Spiraling Causality: Escalation and De-escalation Ch 7: Mutual Causality: Symbiosis and Bi-Directionality Ch 8: Relational Causality: Balances and Differentials
• Part 3: Features of Complex Causality and Our Related Default Assumptions Ch 9: Across Time and Distance: Detecting Delayed and Distant Effects Ch 10: "What Happened?" vs. "What's Going On?": Thinking about Steady States Ch 11: What You Can't See Does Matter: Attending to Obvious and Non-Obvious Causes Ch 12: It's Not Always a Case of Who Did It: Minding Passive and Unintentional Causality Ch 13: Step by Step...Or Not: The Mind-Bending Concept of Simultaneous Causality Ch 14: Figuring Out What to Count On: Dealing with Stochastic Causality Ch 15: Isn't Anybody in Charge Around Here?: Attending to Distributed Causality and Emergence
• Part 4: Summing Up: The Implications for Helping a New Generation Understand Causal Complexity Ch 16: Putting it All Together: Teaching for Causal Complexity.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

What do children's interactions on the playground have to do with foreign policy? How does science understanding in middle school relate to environmental disasters in third world countries? The causal patterns that we detect and how we act upon them pervade every aspect of our lives. These skills will only become more important in the future as our world becomes more global and more interconnected. Yet we aren't very skilled at thinking about causality. Research shows that instead we rely on limiting default assumptions that can lead to poor choices in a complex world. What can we do about it? This book offers ways to become aware of these patterns and to reframe our thinking to become more effective learners and citizens of the world. Through examples and accessible explanations, it offers a causal curriculum to enable more effective learning so that we can put the power of better causal understanding to work for ourselves and the next generation- for today and tomorrow.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface
• 1. Passing Powers Around
• 2. Modelling Causes as Vectors
• 3. Against Necessity
• 4. Reductionism, Holism, and Emergence
• 5. Simultaneity
• 6. Explanation, Absences, and Counterfactuals
• 7. The Logic of Causation
• 8. Primitive Modality
• 9. Perceiving Causes
• 10. A Biologically Disposed Theory of Causation
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Causation is everywhere in the world: it features in every science and technology. But how much do we truly understand it? Do we know what it means to say that one thing is a cause of another and do we understand what in the world drives causation? Getting Causes from Powers develops a new and original theory of causation based on an ontology of real powers or dispositions. Others have already suggested that this ought to be possible, but no one has yet performed the detailed work. Stephen Mumford and Rani Lill Anjum argue here that the completed theory will not look exactly as anyone has yet anticipated, and that a thoroughly dispositional theory of causation has some surprising features, for instance with respect to modality. The book is not restricted to the metaphysics of causation, but treats a variety of topics such as explanation, perception, modelling, the logic of causal claims, transitivity, and nonlinearity, and the empirical credentials of the theory are tested with reference to biology.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

What types of entities qualify as "causes" and "effects"? What is the relationship between cause and effect? How are causal claims to be assessed? The first question deals with the structure of the world; the second is about theories that interpret the relationship of causes to effects; while the third has to do with proper procedure in science and everyday life. This volume is a wide-ranging history of answers that have been given to these three questions, and their relationship to scientific understanding. Losee presents a number of theories of causality within a historical survey that emphasizes the interrelationship between these theories and developments in science. His analysis displays the strengths and weaknesses of these theories so as to contribute to our present understanding of causal relatedness. Among the positions discussed are those of Aristotle, Hume, Kant, Mill, Salmon, Lewis, and Woodward. Losee's analysis displays the strengths and weaknesses of theories that identify causal relatedness with regularity of sequence, probability increase, energy transfer, exchange of a conserved quantity, counterfactual dependence, and inferability. These theories are judged, in part, by their ability to resolve difficulties posed by instances of overdetermination, causation by omission, preventive causation, and causation by disconnection. Since applications of the theories to these instances disagree, a strategy of employing multiple concepts of causation is examined. "Theories of Causality" also describes the particular difficulties for causal analysis posed by quantum mechanics. One such difficulty is the prohibition against combining a causal analysis of a quantum process with a spatio-temporal description of that process.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Preface Introduction Belief Ch.
• 1: Ordinal Conditional Functions. A Dynamic Theory of Epistemic States 30 pp. Causation Ch.
• 2: Direct and Indirect Causes ca. 36 pp. Ch.
• 3: Bayesian Nets Are All There Is To Causal Dependence 16 pp. Ch.
• 4: Causation: An Alternative ca. 28 pp. Ch.
• 5: Causal Laws are Objectifications of Inductive Schemes 30 pp. Laws Ch.
• 6: Laws, Ceteris Paribus Conditions, and the Dynamics of Belief 22 pp. Ch.
• 7: Enumerative Induction and Lawlikeness ca. 24 pp. Ch.
• 8: Chance and Necessity: From Humean Supervenience to Humean Projection ca. 36 pp. Coherence Ch.
• 9: A Reason for Explanation: Explanations Provide Stable Reasons 32 pp. Ch.
• 10: Two Coherence Principles 21 pp. Ch.
• 11: How to Understand the Foundations of Empirical Belief in a Coherentist Way 18 pp. Concepts Ch.
• 12: A Priori Reasons: Fresh Look at Dispositions ca. 24 pp. Ch.
• 13: The Character of Color Predicates: A Materialist View 29 pp. Ch.
• 14: Concepts Are Beliefs About Essences [with Ulrike Haas-Spohn] 30 pp. Ch.
• 15: The Intentional versus the Propositional Conception of the Objects of Belief ca. 26 pp. Bibliography Index.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Wolfgang Spohn, born in 1950, is one of the most distinguished analytic philosophers and philosophers of science of Germany, editor-in-chief of "Erkenntnis" for more than 13 years, author of two books and more than 60 papers covering a wide range: epistemology, metaphysics, and philosophy of science, philosophical logic, philosophy of language and mind, and the theory of practical rationality. This collection presents 15 of his most important essays on theoretical philosophy. The centre piece is his uniquely successful theory of the dynamics of belief, tantamount to an account of induction and nowadays widely acknowledged as 'ranking theory'. Like any account of induction, this theory has deep implications ingeniously elaborated in the papers included. They cover an account of deterministic and also probabilistic causation, initially subjectively relativized, but then objectivized in a projectivistic sense, and an account of explanation and of strict, of ceteris paribus, and of chance laws. They advance a coherentist epistemology, though giving foundationalist intuitions their due, and establish some coherence principles as a priori true, entailing even a weak principle of causality. They finally shed light on concept formation by more broadly embedding the epistemological considerations into the framework of two-dimensional semantics. All this is carried out with formal rigor when feasible.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)