Rethinking causation from Hume to modern science
Discover a rigorous, historically grounded examination of what we mean by cause and effect. This work challenges the popular belief in universal necessity and offers a careful look at how ideas of causation have evolved in philosophy and science.
This edition surveys major arguments, from early debates over Hume’s theory to later views by Kant, Mill, and Baden Powell. It traces how “laws of nature” are understood as patterns of regularity, rather than fixed essences, and it explores how our beliefs about causes arise from experience, observation, and reasoning about regularities in the world.
- How causation has been defined and defended across key thinkers
- Different views on the existence and meaning of necessary connection
- What counts as a law of nature and how it differs from simple regularities
- How theories of causation influence scientific explanation and inquiry
Ideal for readers of philosophy of science, epistemology, and logic who want a clear, historically informed map of the causation debate in this edition’s scope.