Cause and Norm

TLDR

Much of the philosophical literature on causation has focused on the concept of actual (token) causation, which many theories attempt to capture. This paper investigates the purpose of the concept of actual causation. The authors argue that examining how causal judgments are shaped by people’s understanding of norms yields insight into the concept’s purpose. They find that actual causation is unnecessary for prediction or rational deliberation.

Abstract

Much of the philosophical literature on causation has focused on the concept of “actual” causation, sometimes called “token” causation. In particular, it is this notion of actual causation that many philosophical theories of causation have attempted to capture. In this paper, we address the question: What purpose does this concept serve? As we shall see in the next section, one does not need this concept for purposes of prediction or rational delib What then could its purpose be? We will argue that one can gain an important clue here by looking at the ways in which causal judgments are shaped by people’s understanding of norms.