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...ufficient’ for their effects. He writes: ‘By causes that determine their effects I shallsmean ones that are in the circumstances both sufficient and necessary for them.’s(Mellor 1995, 133) Similarly (=-=Hausman 1998-=-, 33) and (Bigelow and Pargetters1990, 290). Free Agents as Cause 13 liard ball or a cat jumping on the table. If there are entities that have thespower to let certain events pop up (so that they have...

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...es which are in this sense ‘sufficient’ for their effects. He writes: ‘By causes that determine their effects I shallsmean ones that are in the circumstances both sufficient and necessary for them.’s(=-=Mellor 1995-=-, 133) Similarly (Hausman 1998, 33) and (Bigelow and Pargetters1990, 290). Free Agents as Cause 13 liard ball or a cat jumping on the table. If there are entities that have thespower to let certain ev...

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...at in a free action thesdecision is caused deterministically but the process of deliberation leadingsto the decision is indeterministic (Dennett 1978; Fischer and Ravizza 1992;sFree Agents as Cause 3 =-=Mele 1995-=-). It is true that an action’s involving an indeterministic processsmakes it true that, before the action occurred, it was possible that anothersaction would occur instead of the one that did occur. B...

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...urne’s theory: (Swinburnes1997, 89-96 ; 1994, 56-62 ; 1997, 87-90). The objections I raise below applysequally to Swinburne’s theory. Other authors who have proposed agent causationsare (Reid 1788), (=-=Taylor 1966-=-, chs. 8 & 9), (O'Connor 2000).sFree Agents as Cause 7 cause of it. So if you raise your arm, then you are the cause of your arm’ssrising, which means the same as that you are contributing causally to...

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... this context, speaks of ‘extravagant metaphysical commitments’. (Honderich 1993, ch. 3) makes both kinds of objections. Objections ofsthe second kind (the unintelligibility objection) are raised by (=-=Kane 1985-=-, 72) ands(Watson 1987, 167).s9 Mellor, for example, thinks that there are causes which are in this sense ‘sufficient’ for their effects. He writes: ‘By causes that determine their effects I shallsmea...

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... not makesthat decision.’ (Clarke 2000, 21) Others hold that that in a free action thesdecision is caused deterministically but the process of deliberation leadingsto the decision is indeterministic (=-=Dennett 1978-=-; Fischer and Ravizza 1992;sFree Agents as Cause 3 Mele 1995). It is true that an action’s involving an indeterministic processsmakes it true that, before the action occurred, it was possible that ano...

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...in Miller’s.s5 In earlier writings Chisholm defended a theory of agent causation that is moressimilar to mine. There he postulated an event ‘which is caused not by any othersevent, but by the agent’ (=-=Chisholm 1964-=-, 54) (cf. Chisholm 1966). This seems to besgetting at what I have called a choice event.sFree Agents as Cause 9 So by his claim that there is agent causation Chisholm does not mean thatsthere is some...

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...ts. Since he thought that every concept must be a copy of a sense impression or a complex of such copies, Hume concluded that the concept of causation does not contain the idea of a causal connexion (=-=Strawson 1989-=-). Contemporary Humean philosophers draw the further conclusion that there is no such thing as a causal connexion. One theory of causation in this spirit is the regularity theory, which defines causat...

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... decision.’ (Clarke 2000, 21) Others hold that that in a free action thesdecision is caused deterministically but the process of deliberation leadingsto the decision is indeterministic (Dennett 1978; =-=Fischer and Ravizza 1992-=-;sFree Agents as Cause 3 Mele 1995). It is true that an action’s involving an indeterministic processsmakes it true that, before the action occurred, it was possible that anothersaction would occur in...

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...ism, environment, spatial and temporal continuity, and so forth, can provide a common domain-neutral framework for the development of a series of domain-specific theories for ontological engineering (=-=Smith and Varzi, 1999-=- and 2002). In our present case this means that knowledge about the nature of causal connexions can help provide a framework for the formal representation of information about causings. Let me give fo...

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.... He writes: ‘The relation that obtains between cause and effect in an instancesof agent causation is the very same relation that obtains between cause and effect insan instance of event causation.’ (=-=Clarke 1996-=-, 21) 3 (Chisholm 1976; 1976, ch. 2). Very similar is Swinburne’s theory: (Swinburnes1997, 89-96 ; 1994, 56-62 ; 1997, 87-90). The objections I raise below applysequally to Swinburne’s theory. Other a...

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...her similar situations; we subsume it under obtaining patterns or regularities of the form: such-and-such events are always followed by such-and-such events. This view poses obvious difficulties (cf. =-=Swinburne 1997-=-); for example, a pattern of the given type is instantiated whenever the falling of a barometer is followed by rain, but the falling of a barometer does not cause rain. Many modifications of the regul...