Work

Causality and Reliability

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: David Lewis’s classical counterfactual theory of causation fails to capture what we call the “reliability constraint on causation,” according to which c causes e only if e would occur in pertinently similar circumstances where c occurs. In this article, we put forward a modified counterfactual account of causation that attempts to accommodate the reliability constraint. Our account adopts a strengthened possible-worlds semantics while retaining the strong centering thesis. Moreover, by contrasting our approach with several alternative counterfactual approaches to reliability, we aim to argue that our account is more plausible than the competing accounts.

Source: Acta Analytica

DOI: 10.1007/s12136-025-00634-6

Authors: Yingying Tang, Lei Zhong

Institutions: Shenzhen University, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Language: English

Topic: Philosophy and History of Science

Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,190

OpenAlex ID: W4408407009

FWCI: 3.448

Cites: 22

Cited by: 1

Related to: 10