Mechanical and Teleological Causation

Abstract

Before embarking on a philosophical discussion of Causation it is desirable to draw certain distinctions. I begin by distinguishing between Causal Propositions and Principles about Causation. By a ‘causal proposition’ I mean any proposition which asserts of something that it is causally connected with something. Such propositions may be singular, e.g., ‘The death of Harold at Hastings caused the defeat of the English Army’; or they may be universal, e.g., ‘Friction causes rise of temperature’. The latter are called Causal Laws. By a ‘principle about causation’ I mean a general principle about causal propositions. Examples would be: ‘Every event is causally determined’, ‘An effect and its cause must be manifestations of different determinate values of the same supreme determinables’, and so on.