Three Kinds of Causal Indeterminacy

Hoffmann-Kolss, Vera (2024). Three Kinds of Causal Indeterminacy. Australasian journal of philosophy, pp. 1-16. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group 10.1080/00048402.2024.2381120

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The goal of this paper is to argue that there is indeterminacy in causation. I present three types of cases in which it is indeterminate whether an event c caused another event e: (1) cases of absence causation recently discussed by Bernstein and by Swanson, (2) cases leading to Sorites paradoxes for causation, and (3) cases where c and e occur in certain indeterministic causal structures and it is therefore indeterminate whether there is a causal relation between them. These cases, I argue, provide strong evidence that indeterminacy is an important general feature of the causal relation and that philosophical theorizing about causation should take this observation into account.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Philosophy
06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Philosophy > Theoretical Philosophy

UniBE Contributor:

Hoffmann-Kolss, Vera

Subjects:

100 Philosophy
000 Computer science, knowledge & systems
100 Philosophy > 110 Metaphysics

ISSN:

1471-6828

Publisher:

Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group

Funders:

[42] Schweizerischer Nationalfonds ; [137] DFG KU2689/2-1

Language:

English

Submitter:

Vera Caroline Ruth Hoffmann-Kolss

Date Deposited:

19 Dec 2023 07:18

Last Modified:

15 Sep 2024 02:27

Publisher DOI:

10.1080/00048402.2024.2381120

Uncontrolled Keywords:

causation, probabilistic causation, absence causation, prevention, Sorites paradox, indeterminacy

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/190234

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/190234

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