Absent causation and a critical review of a non-realistic theory
Absence Causation and a Critical Review of a Non-Realistic Theory Sayyed Ali Taleghani* Received: 22/07/2018 | Accepted: 11/02/2019 Abstract Causality in some contexts such as “Hamid’s failure to water his plants was a cause of their death.” and “Rickets is caused by a deficiency of vi...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
University of Qom
2019-05-01
|
| Series: | Pizhūhish/hā-yi Falsafī- Kalāmī |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://pfk.qom.ac.ir/article_1327_1a230b9c222e8a9def57110cc5c0c690.pdf |
| Summary: | Absence Causation and a Critical Review of a Non-Realistic Theory Sayyed Ali Taleghani* Received: 22/07/2018 | Accepted: 11/02/2019 Abstract Causality in some contexts such as “Hamid’s failure to water his plants was a cause of their death.” and “Rickets is caused by a deficiency of vitamin D” can be called "absence causation". In this paper, the main question is whether the use of the term “cause” in such instances due to carelessness and a misuse of language or denotes something that is real and independent of our minds. Defending the first view can be called “anti-realism” in absence causation and the second as “anti-realism”. Helen Beebee is one of the contemporary philosophers that defend anti-realistic theory of absence causation. Her main argument is, in short, as Davidson said, that causation is a relation between events, whereas there are no negative events, therefore, there is no genuine absence causation. However, the main objection that those like her encounter is the common and strong linguistic intuition in sentences like Hamid’s inattentiveness to plants. Beebee has argued that our intuitions in these cases are wrong and the author strives to show that her arguments have failed to achieve this goal. ع * Department of Philosophy and Theology, Baqir al-Olum University ׀ sa.taleghani@bou.ac.ir 🞕 Taleghani, S. A. (2019). Absence Causation and a Critical Review of a Non-Realistic Theory. The Journal of Philosophical-Theological Research, 21(79), 97۔ 120. https://doi.org/ 10.22091/jptr-pfk.2019.3417.1924. 🞕 |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1735-9791 2538-2500 |