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Klappentext This is a clear and original account of causation based firmly in contemporary science. Dowe discusses in a systematic way an original! positive account of causation: the conserved quantities account of causal processes which he has been developing over the last ten years. The book describes causal processes and interactions in terms of conserved quantities: a causal process is the worldline of an object which possesses a conserved quantity! and a causal interaction involves the exchange of conserved quantities. Further! things that are properly called cause and effect are appropriately connected by a set of causal processes and interactions. The distinction between cause and effect is explained in terms of a new version of the fork theory: the direction of a certain kind of ordered pattern of events in the world. This particular version has the virtue that it allows for the possibility of backwards causation! and therefore time travel. Zusammenfassung This book! published in 2000! discusses in a systematic way! a positive account of causation: the conserved quantities account of causal processes. It is an important book that will be widely discussed among philosophers and students working in contemporary metaphysics and philosophy of science! and also scientists with an interest in foundational issues. Inhaltsverzeichnis Acknowledgements; 1. Horses for courses: causation and the task of philosophy; 2. Hume's legacy: regularity, counterfactual and probabilistic theories of causation; 3. Transference theories of causation; 4. Process theories of causation; 5. The conserved quantity theory; 6. Prevention and omission; 7. Connecting causes and effects; 8. The direction of causation and backwards-in-time causation; References; Index.
