Hume on Causation

Hume on Causation PDF

Author: Helen Beebee

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2006-09-27

Total Pages: 431

ISBN-13: 1134544707

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Causation is one of the most important and enduring topics in philosophy, going as far back as Aristotle. In this lucid and enthralling account, Helen Beebee covers all the major debates and issues in the philosophy of causation, making it the ideal starting point for those approaching the subject for the first time. Beginning with an introduction to the concept, the book examines the most significant philosopher of causation – David Hume – and assesses the problems of induction and necessary connection in light of his thought. Helen Beebee then investigates different theories of causation and challenges to the Humean approach. She considers the concepts of regularity, causal experience, necessity and essences. Throughout the book, she also critically discusses other key philosophers on causation, including J.L. Mackie, John Wright and Brian Ellis.

Hume and the Problem of Causation

Hume and the Problem of Causation PDF

Author: Tom L. Beauchamp

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1981

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13:

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The authors demonstrate that Hume's views can stand up to contemporary criticism and are relevant to current debates on causality.

Character and Causation

Character and Causation PDF

Author: Constantine Sandis

Publisher:

Published: 2018-12-11

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 9781138283787

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In the first ever book-length treatment of David Hume's philosophy of action, Constantine Sandis brings together seemingly disparate aspects of Hume's work to present an understanding of human action that is much richer than previously assumed. Sandis showcases Hume's interconnected views on action and its causes by situating them within a wider vision of our human understanding of personal identity, causation, freedom, historical explanation, and morality. In so doing, he also relates key aspects of the emerging picture to contemporary concerns within the philosophy of action and moral psychology, including debates between Humeans and anti-Humeans about both 'motivating' and 'normative' reasons. Character and Causation takes the form of a series of essays which collectively argue that Hume's overall project proceeds by way of a soft conceptual revisionism that emerges from his Copy Principle. This involves re-calibrating our philosophical ideas of all that agency involves to fit a scheme that more readily matches the range of impressions that human beings actually have. On such a reading, once we rid ourselves of a certain kind of metaphysical ambition we are left with a perfectly adequate account of how it is that people can act in character, freely, and for good reasons. The resulting picture is one that both unifies Hume's practical and theoretical philosophy and radically transforms contemporary philosophy of action for the better.

The Secret Connexion

The Secret Connexion PDF

Author: Galen Strawson

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014-02

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 0199605858

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In this revised edition of The Secret Connexion, Galen Strawson explores one of the most discussed subjects in philosophy: David Hume's work on causation. He argues that Hume believes in causal influence, but insists that we cannot know its nature. The regularity theory of causation is indefensible, and Hume never adopted it in any case.

Hume's 'A Treatise of Human Nature'

Hume's 'A Treatise of Human Nature' PDF

Author: John P. Wright

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2009-11-26

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0521833760

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Examines the development of Hume's ideas and their relation to eighteenth-century theories of the imagination and passions.

The New Hume Debate

The New Hume Debate PDF

Author: Rupert Read

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2002-11

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1134555288

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First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Efficient Causation

Efficient Causation PDF

Author: Tad M. Schmaltz

Publisher: Oxford Philosophical Concepts

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 395

ISBN-13: 0199782172

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"This volume is a contribution to the Oxford Philosophical Concepts series, the main goal of which is to provide historical accounts of the development of central philosophical concepts. Among these concepts would seem to be that of efficient causation (or, today, simply causation). Causation is now commonly supposed to involve a succession that instantiates some law-like regularity. This understanding of causality has a history that includes various interrelated conceptions of efficient causation that date from ancient Greek philosophy and that extend to contemporary discussions of causation in metaphysics and philosophy of science. The consideration here of this history is divided into three sections comprising eleven chapters total. The first section concerns concepts of efficient causation in Aristotle, the Stoics, late antiquity and earlier medieval philosophy, and later medieval philosophy dating from Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) to Ockham. The second concerns the different forms of this concept in the modern period, starting with late scholasticism (as represented in Suaréz) and Descartes, and including Spinoza and Leibniz, Malebranche and Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Finally, there is a third section divided into a consideration of conceptions of causation in contemporary philosophy that derive from the work of Hume and Aristotle, respectively. A distinctive feature of the volume is that it also includes four short "Reflections" that explore the significance of the concept of efficient causation for literature, the history of music, the history of science and contemporary art theory"--