Causal Relations and Causal Relata in Science
摘要
There is no such class of things as causes. The terms ‘cause’ and ‘effect’ are relational terms, in other words, our concern is the causal relation ‘x causes y’. This relation is applied to pairs of singular events and states of affairs, to pairs of types of events/and states of affairs and to pairs of variables. In science we are mostly interested in generalities, so the focus is usually how to infer causal relations between types of events/states of affairs and between variables. The main points in this chapter are: