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398Hume on CausationRoutledge. 2006.Hume is traditionally credited with inventing the ‘regularity theory’ of causation, according to which the causal relation between two events consists merely in the fact that events of the first kind are always followed by events of the second kind. Hume is also traditionally credited with two other, hugely influential positions: the view that the world appears to us as a world of unconnected events, and inductive scepticism: the view that the ‘problem of induction’, the problem of providing a j…Read more
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934Does Anything Hold the Universe Together?Synthese 149 (3): 509-533. 2006.According to ‘regularity theories’ of causation, the obtaining of causal relations depends on no more than the obtaining of certain kinds of regularity. Regularity theorists are thus anti-realists about necessary connections in nature. Regularity theories of one form or another have constituted the dominant view in analytic Philosophy for a long time, but have recently come in for some robust criticism, notably from Galen Strawson. Strawson’s criticisms are natural criticisms to make, but have n…Read more
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1270Transfer of warrant, begging the question, and semantic externalismPhilosophical Quarterly 51 (204): 356-74. 2001.
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97Causation and Free Will, by Carolina Sartorio: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. viii + 188, £35 (review)Australasian Journal of Philosophy 96 (1): 207-208. 2018.
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607Reply to Huemer on the consequence argumentPhilosophical Review 111 (2): 235-241. 2002.In a recent paper, Michael Huemer provides a new interpretation for ‘N’, the operator that occurs in Peter van Inwagen’s Consequence Argument, and argues that, given that interpretation, the Consequence Argument is sound. I have no quarrel with Huemer’s claim that the Consequence Argument is valid. I shall argue instead that his defense of its premises—a defense that allegedly involves refuting David Lewis’s response to van Inwagen—is unsuccessful.
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252On the abuse of the necessary a posterioriIn Helen Beebee & Nigel Sabbarton-Leary (eds.), The Semantics and Metaphysics of Natural Kinds, Routledge. pp. 159--79. 2010.
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195John Foster the divine lawmakerBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 60 (2): 453-457. 2009.
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24Hume’s impact on causationThe Philosophers' Magazine 54 75-79. 2011.Many philosophers came to regard “causation” as an illegitimate pseudo-concept. This was a dominant view in analytic philosophy until quite late in the twentieth century. Russell famously quipped that “the law of causality” was “a relic of a bygone age, surviving, like the monarchy, only because it is erroneously supposed to do no harm”.
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601Probability as a guide to lifeIn David Papineau (ed.), The Roots of Reason, Oxford University Press. pp. 217-243. 2003.
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187Chance-changing causal processesIn Phil Dowe & Paul Noordhof (eds.), Cause and Chance, Routledge. pp. 39-57. 2003.Scepticism concerning the idea of causation being linked to contingent chance-raising is articulated in Beebee’s challenging chapter. She suggests that none of these approaches will avoid the consequence that spraying defoliant on a weed is a cause of the weed’s subsequent health. We will always be able to abstract away enough of the healthy plant processes so all that’s left is the causal chain involving defoliation and health. In those circumstances, there will be contingent chance-raising. Be…Read more
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484Seeing causingProceedings of the Aristotelian Society 103 (3): 257-280. 2003.Singularists about causation often claim that we can have experiences as of causation. This paper argues that regularity theorists need not deny that claim; hence the possibility of causal experience is no objection to regularity theories of causation. The fact that, according to a regularity theorist, causal experience requires background theory does not provide grounds for denying that it is genuine experience. The regularity theorist need not even deny that non-inferential perceptual knowledg…Read more
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749Necessary Connections and the Problem of InductionNoûs 45 (3): 504-527. 2011.In this paper Beebee argues that the problem of induction, which she describes as a genuine sceptical problem, is the same for Humeans than for Necessitarians. Neither scientific essentialists nor Armstrong can solve the problem of induction by appealing to IBE, for both arguments take an illicit inductive step.
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1172Hume’s Two Definitions: The Procedural InterpretationHume Studies 37 (2): 243-274. 2011.Hume's two definitions of causation have caused an extraordinary amount of controversy. The starting point for the controversy is the fact, well known to most philosophy undergraduates, that the two definitions aren't even extensionally equivalent, let alone semantically equivalent. So how can they both be definitions? One response to this problem has been to argue that Hume intends only the first as a genuine definition—an interpretation that delivers a straightforward regularity interpretation…Read more
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37The Semantics and Metaphysics of Natural Kinds (edited book)Routledge. 2010.Essentialism--roughly, the view that natural kinds have discrete essences, generating truths that are necessary but knowable only _a posteriori_--is an increasingly popular view in the metaphysics of science. At the same time, philosophers of language have been subjecting Kripke’s views about the existence and scope of the necessary _a posteriori_ to rigorous analysis and criticism. Essentialists typically appeal to Kripkean semantics to motivate their radical extension of the realm of the neces…Read more
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1328Causing and NothingnessIn L. A. Paul, E. J. Hall & J. Collins (eds.), Causation and Counterfactuals, Mit Press. pp. 291--308. 2004.
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68Reply to Strawson:'David Hume: Objects and Power'In Stewart Duncan & Antonia LoLordo (eds.), Debates in Modern Philosophy: Essential Readings and Contemporary Responses, Routledge. pp. 242. 2013.
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47Review of Skyrms & Eells (eds.), Probabilities & Conditionals (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 49 (1): 181-184. 1998.
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174Hume. Metaphysics and Epistemology (edited book)mentis. 2010.The articles in this special issue of the yearbook Logical Analysis and History of Philosophy all concern, in one way or another, Hume’s epistemology and metaphysics. There are discussions of our knowledge of causal powers, the extent to which conceivability is a guide to modality, and testimony; there are also discussions of our ideas of space and time, the role in Hume’s thought of the psychological mechanism of ‘completing the union’, the role of impressions, and Hume’s argument against the …Read more
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185Metaphysics: The Key ConceptsRoutledge. 2010._‘Informative, accessible, and fun to read— this is an excellent reference guide for undergraduates and anyone wanting an introduction to the fundamental issues of metaphysics. I know of no other resource like it.’– __Meghan Griffith, Davidson College, USA_ _'Marvellous! This book provides the very best place to start for students wanting to take the first step into understanding metaphysics.Undergraduates would do well to buy it and consult it regularly. The quality and clarity of the material …Read more
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44Counterfactual Dependence and Broken Barometers: A Response to Flichman’s ArgumentCritica 29 (86): 107-119. 1997.
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18JOHN FOSTER The Divine Lawmaker (review)British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 60 (2): 453-457. 2009.
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37Reading Metaphysics: Selected Texts with Interactive Commentary (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2007.This collection brings together key contemporary texts in metaphysics and features an interactive commentary which helps readers engage the texts critically and to use them to develop their own views. Each text is followed by a detailed commentary, setting it in context Includes questions designed to help readers think hard about what the author is saying and why, to think of objections, and to formulate his or her own views Aims to improve the reader’s ability to engage critically with philosop…Read more
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IntroductionIn Helen Beebee & Nigel Sabbarton-Leary (eds.), The Semantics and Metaphysics of Natural Kinds, Routledge. 2010.
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