Causal Overdetermination and Contextualism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. The Counterfactual Account of Causation

   • Esteban Céspedes

   Pages 1-26

3. The Ranking-Theoretic Account of Causation

   • Esteban Céspedes

   Pages 27-37

4. The Probabilistic Account of Causation

   • Esteban Céspedes

   Pages 39-48

5. Causal Processes

   • Esteban Céspedes

   Pages 49-57

6. Explanatory Exclusion and the Context of Explanation

   • Esteban Céspedes

   Pages 59-67

7. Conclusions and Final Remarks

   • Esteban Céspedes

   Pages 69-74

8. Back Matter

   Pages 75-86

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This work explains how different theories of causation confront causal overdetermination. Chapters clarify the problem of overdetermination and explore its fundamental aspects. It is argued that a theory of causation can account for our intuitions in overdetermination cases only by accepting that the adequacy of our claims about causation depends on the context in which they are evaluated.The author proposes arguments for causal contextualism and provides insight which is valuable for resolution of the problem.

These chapters enable readers to quickly absorb different perspectives on overdetermination and important theories of causation, therefore it is a work that will have a broad appeal.    

• Causal contextualism
• Causal overdetermination
• Counterfactual theories of causation
• Causal processes
• Causal models
• Causal exclusion

                  

• Valparaíso Complex Systems Institute, Valparaíso, Chile

  Esteban Céspedes

Esteban Céspedes works as a post-doctoral researcher at the Valparaíso Complex Systems Institute, Chile, on a research project concerning causality and emergent properties. He obtained his PhD in philosophy from the Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany.   

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