Boolean Difference-Making: A Modern Regularity Theory of Causation
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: A regularity theory of causation analyses type-level causation in terms of Boolean difference-making. The essential ingredient that helps this theoretical framework overcome the well-known problems of Hume's and Mill's classical regularity theoretic proposals is a principle of non-redundancy: only redundancy-free Boolean dependency structures track causation. The first part of this paper argues that the recent regularity theoretic literature has not consistently implemented this principle, for it disregarded two important types of redundancies: componential and structural redundancies. The second part then develops a new variant of a regularity theory that does justice to all types of redundancies and, thereby, provides the first all-inclusive notion of Boolean difference-making.
DOI: 10.1093/bjps/axz047
Authors: Michael Baumgartner, Christoph Falk
Institutions: University of Bergen, University of Geneva
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2883987296