Efficient Causation: A History (Oxford Philosophical Concepts) - Hardcover

9780199782185: Efficient Causation: A History (Oxford Philosophical Concepts)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199782180 ISBN 13: 9780199782185

Publisher: OUP USA, 2014

Causation is now commonly supposed to involve a succession that instantiates some law-like regularity. Efficient Causation: A History examines how our modern notion developed from a very different understanding of efficient causation. This volume begins with Aristotle's initial conception of efficient causation, and then considers the transformations and reconsiderations of this conception in late antiquity, medieval and modern philosophy, ending with contemporary accounts of causation. It includes four short "Reflections" that explore the significance of the concept for literature, the history of music, the history of science, and contemporary art theory.

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Review:

The volume showcases crucial elements that at one point or another entered into philosophical views of efficient causation. It provides a useful framework for taking a fresh look at existing work on causation... This Oxford Philosophical Concepts anthology represents a great first step toward a better, historically situated, understanding of efficient causation. As such it is a welcome addition to the philosophical literature. (Andreea Mihali, American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly)

This fine history of the evolution of conceptions of causation has no rival. ... Contributors' reflections on the interactive development of philosophical conceptions of the concept of efficient causation make this a complex but rewarding work for advanced students of philosophy. Comprehensive index and bibliography ... Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above. (Choice)

[E]ach contributor provides an expert treatment of a chapter in the history of efficient causation, and the book as a whole gives a useful framework to reflect historically on a key philosophical concept. (Andrea Falcon, Journal of the History of Philosophy)

Does the volume achieve these big-picture goals? Yes, for the most part. The quality of the scholarship is very high without being unapproachable, the volume lays out a detailed and insightful history of its target concept, and the Reflections are engaging and thought provoking...volume succeeds admirably in its stated goals ... Efficient Causation is a history of causation written for metaphysicians. By those lights, it is excellent. (Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online)

About the Author:

Tad M. Schmaltz is Professor of Philosophy and James B. and Grace J. Nelson Fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has published articles and book chapters on various topics in early modern philosophy, and is the author of Malebranche's Theory of the Soul (Oxford, 1996), Radical Cartesianism (Cambridge, 2002), and Descartes on Causation (Oxford, 2008).

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