Position
Counterfactual Analysis
One event causes another when, had the first not occurred, the second would not have occurred either.
Classification
- Position level
- specific
- Domains
- Metaphysics
Overview
The counterfactual account takes seriously that causal talk is talk about what would otherwise have happened. It therefore looks not at how often two kinds of event have been paired, but at a single comparison: the nearest situation in which the candidate cause is absent.
That is what lets it separate a cause from a mere accompaniment, which regularity alone cannot do. Its recognised difficulty is the reverse case — pre-emption, where a backup cause stands ready, so the effect would have occurred anyway and the counterfactual comes out false even though the causing plainly happened.
Position on
Incompatible positions
- Causal Powers
Question scope: The Nature of Causation
References
- David Lewis, 'Causation', Journal of Philosophy 70 (1973)
- David Lewis, 'Causation', Journal of Philosophy 70 (1973), which analyses causation as a chain of counterfactual dependence between distinct events