From cause to causation : a Peircean perspective / by Menno Hulswit.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hulswit, Menno.

Series:

Philosophical studies series ; v. 90.

Philosophical studies series ; v. 90

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Peirce, Charles S. (Charles Sanders), 1839-1914.

Peirce, Charles S.

Causation.

Teleology.

Physical Description:

xxi, 253 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Dordrecht ; Boston ; London : Kluwer Academic Publishers, [2002]

Summary:

From Cause to Causation presents both a critical analysis of C.S. Peirce's conception of causation, and a novel approach to causation, based upon the semeiotic of Peirce. The book begins with a review of the history of causation, and with a critical discussion of contemporary theories of the concept of cause'. The author uncovers a number of inadequacies in the received views of causation, and discusses their historical roots. He makes a distinction between "causality," which is the relation between cause and effect, and causation, which is the production of a certain effect. He argues that, by focusing on causality, the contemporary theories fatally neglect the more fundamental problem of causation. The author successively discusses Peirce's theories of final causation, natural classes, semeiotic, and semeiotic causation. Finally, he uses Peirce's semeiotic to develop a new approach to causation, which relates causation to our experience of signs.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Some Key Moments in the History of the Concept of Causation 1

1 Causation in Ancient Greece 2

1 Aristotle: Four Types of Explanation 2

2 The Stoics: Causation, Exceptionless Regularity, and Necessity 5

2 Causation in the Middle Ages 8

1 Thomas Aquinas 8

3 Causation in Modern Philosophy 15

1 The Metaphysical Systems from Descartes till Leibniz 17

2 Critical Philosophy from Locke till Mill 27

4 Conclusion: Important Changes in the Meaning of Cause 41

Chapter 2 Contemporary Approaches to Causation 47

1 The Contemporary Debate 47

1 Necessary and/or Sufficient Conditions 47

2 Causes and Counterfactual Dependency 54

3 The Instrumental Approach: Causes as Means-to-Ends 56

4 Probabilistic Causation 58

5 The Singularist Approach 60

2 Basic Issues in the Contemporary Approaches to Causation 64

1 Five Fundamental Requirements 64

2 The Relata of the Causal Relation 67

3 Further Issues 71

Chapter 3 Peirce on Final Causation 75

2 Peirce's Conception of Final Causation 76

1 The Nature of Final Causation 76

2 Final Causation and Efficient Causation 80

3 Teleological and Mechanistic Processes; Peirce's Rejection of Dualism 82

4 Teleology and Objective Chance 84

5 Teleology as Creative; Developmental Teleology 85

3 A Peircean Critique of Ernst Mayr's Theory of Teleology 88

1 The Goal of Evolution 88

2 Mayr's Dualism 91

3 Mayr's Idea of a Program as 'Causally Responsible' for Teleological Processes 93

Chapter 4 Final Causes and Natural Classes 97

1 Natural Kinds and Causation in Contemporary Philosophy 99

2 Some Contemporary Interpretations of Peircean Natural Kinds 101

1 Susan Haack's Interpretation 101

2 Christopher Hookway's Interpretation 102

3 Sandra Rosenthal's Interpretation 103

3 Peirce versus Mill 104

1 Mill's Theory of Natural Kinds 104

2 Natural Kinds and the Uniformity of Nature; Peirce's Earliest Discussion of Natural Kinds 105

3 Peirce's Baldwin Definition of Kind 107

4 The PRE-Character 108

4 Kinds and Classes 109

5 Classification According to Final Causes 112

6 Criteria of Demarcation 116

7 Recapitulation: Definition of Peircean Natural Classes 119

8 Why Believe in Natural Classes? 121

9 Examples of Natural Classes 122

1 Examples from the Realm of Human Experience: Social Classes, the Sciences, and Man-Made Objects 122

2 The Chemical Elements 123

3 The Biological Species 126

10 Was Peirce a Pluralist Regarding Natural Classes? 127

11 Conclusion: Natural Classes and Causation 131

Chapter 5 The Riddle of Semeiotic Causation 133

1 Some Fundamental Conditions of Signs as Such 134

1 Early Basic Insights 134

2 Later Developments 136

2 T.L. Short 139

3 Joseph Ransdell 144

4 Some Problems Generated by Short's and Ransdell's Views 147

5 The Causal Role of the Dynamic Object 148

1 Positive Evidence 148

2 Negative Evidence 150

6 Icon, Index, and Symbol 153

7 The Meaning of 'Determines' 160

Chapter 6 A Semeiotic Account of Causation 167

1 Criticism of the Received View 167

1 Contemporary Approaches to Causation 168

2 Two Mutually Incompatible Conceptions of Cause 170

3 The Inadequacy of the Received View 171

4 Two Mutually Incompatible Categoreal Frameworks 176

5 Conclusion to Part 1: Criticism of the Received View 179

2 Necessary Conditions for a Theory of Causation 180

3 Peirce on Causality and Causation 181

1 Peirce's Critique of the Principle of Causality 181

2 Peirce's Conception of Causation 187

3 Causality and Causation: Facts versus Events 190

4 Events and Processes 192

5 Conclusion to Part 3: Causality and Causation 194

4 A Semeiotic Approach to Causation 195

1 Some Formal Characteristics of Semeiosis 195

2 The Problem of Semeiotic Causation 197

3 Semeiosis Provides the Formal Structure of Causation 198

4 A Semeiotic Approach to Causation 199

5 Conclusion: a Peircean Approach to Causation 213.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-241) and index.

ISBN:

1402009763

OCLC:

50730907