Causal pluralism is, perhaps not surprisingly, plural. My aim in this talk will be to explore the relationship between two kinds of pluralism that have received attention in recent years. The first pluralism, which we owe chiefly to Ned Hall, argues that some causal claims are concerned with production while others are concerned with dependence or difference making. The second, which we owe chiefly to Elizabeth Anscombe, tells us that the word ‘cause’ is a schema term that stands in for more specific varieties of activities like pushing, wetting or scraping. My hope will be to show how we can understand the differing semantic and explanatory roles of these concepts, while connecting them to a reasonably economical ontology that is grounded in mechanisms.
Department of Philosophy, Skinner Building, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-7505
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