Hunting Causes and Using Them Approaches in Philosophy and Economics

Hunting Causes and Using Them argues that causation is not one thing, as commonly assumed, but many. There is a huge variety of causal relations, each with different characterizing features, different methods for discovery and different uses to which it can be put. In this collection of new and previously published essays, Nancy Cartwright provides a critical survey of philosophical and economic literature on causality, with a special focus on the currently fashionable Bayes-nets and invariance methods – and it exposes a huge gap in that literature. Almost every account treats either exclusively how to hunt causes or how to use them. But where is the bridge between? It’s no good knowing how to warrant a causal claim if we don’t know what we can do with that claim once we have it. This book will interest philosophers, economists and social scientists.

Introduction; Part I. Plurality in Causality: 1. Preamble; 2. Causation: one word, many things; 3. Causes: warranting them and using them; 4. Where is the theory in our 'theories' of causality?; Part II. Case Studies: Bayes-nets and Invariance Theories: 5. Preamble; 6. What is wrong with Bayes-nets?; 7. Modularity: it can - and generally does - fail; 8. Against modularity, the causal Markov condition and any link between the two: comments on Hausman and Woodward; 9. From metaphysics to method: comments on manipulability and the causal Markov condition; 10. Two theorems on invariance and causality; Part III. Causal Theories in Economics: 11. Preamble; 12. Probabilities and experiments; 13. How to get causes from probabilities: Cartwright on Simon on causation; 14. The merger of cause and strategy: Hoover on Simon on causation; 15. The vanity of rigour in economics: theoretical models and Galilean experiments; 16. Counterfactuals in economics: a commentary.

Hunting Causes and Using Them argues that causation is not one thing, as commonly assumed, but many. In this collection of essays, Nancy Cartwright provides a critical survey of philosophical and economic literature on causality, with a special focus on the currently fashionable Bayes-nets and invariance methods.

Nancy Cartwright is Professor of Philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science and at the University of California, San Diego. Her many publications include The Dappled World (1999).