Causation and laws of nature in early modern philosophy /
Walter Ott.
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| Summary: | Some philosophers think physical explanations stand on their own: what happens, happens because things have the properties they do. Others think that any such explanation is incomplete: what happens in the physical world must be partly due to the laws of nature. Causation and Laws of Nature in Early Modern Philosophy examines the debate between these views from Descartes to Hume. Ott argues that the competing models of causation in the period grow out of the scholastic notion of power. On this Aristotelian view, the connection between cause and effect is logically necessary. Causes are 'intrinsically directed' at what they produce. But when the Aristotelian view is faced with the challenge of mechanism, the core notion of a power splits into two models, each of which persists throughout the early modern period. It is only when seen in this light that the key arguments of the period can reveal their true virtues and flaws. To make his case, Ott explores such central topics as intentionality, the varieties of necessity, and the nature of relations. Arguing for controversial readings of many of the canonical figures, the book also focuses on lesser-known writers such as Pierre-Sylvain Régis, Nicolas Malebranche, and Robert Boyle. |
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published / Created: |
Oxford ; New York :
Oxford University Press,
2009.
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| Subjects: | |
| Notes: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-258) and index. Physical description: xii, 260 pages ; 24 cm more |
| ISBN: | 9780199570430 0199570434 9780199664689 0199664684 |
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| 100 | 1 | |a Ott, Walter R., |e author. | |
| 245 | 1 | 0 | |a Causation and laws of nature in early modern philosophy / |c Walter Ott. |
| 260 | |a Oxford ; |a New York : |b Oxford University Press, |c 2009. | ||
| 300 | |a xii, 260 pages ; |c 24 cm | ||
| 336 | |a text |b txt |2 rdacontent | ||
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| 504 | |a Includes bibliographical references (pages 251-258) and index. | ||
| 505 | 0 | |a Introduction -- Themes -- The origin and status of laws of nature -- The ontology of powers -- Necessity -- Models of causation -- Plan of the book -- The Aristotelian background -- Necessity -- The ontology of relations -- Manifest and occult qualities -- The Cartesian predicament -- What mechanism isn't -- The rejection of Aristotelianism -- The nude wax : Cartesian ontology -- The laws of nature -- Force -- Occasionalism -- The concurrentist reading -- The argument from laws of nature -- Thoroughgoing occasionalism -- The problem of mental causation -- The dialectic of occasionalism -- Malebranche and the cognitive model of causation -- The argument from nonsense -- The argument from elimination -- The divine concursus argument -- 'Little souls' revisited -- The 'no necessary connection' argument -- The epistemic argument -- Laws and divine volitions -- The content of divine volitions -- The problem of efficacious laws -- Causation and explanation -- A scholastic mechanism -- Régis against the occasionalists -- Power and necessity -- A dead cadaverous thing -- Relations and powers -- Boyle's paradox -- Boyle and the concurrentists -- Locke on relations -- Locke on powers : the geometrical model -- Locke's mechanisms -- Hume -- The two Humes -- Intentionality -- Meaning -- Against the positivist reading -- Signification -- Judgment and belief -- Semiotic empiricism -- Relative ideas -- The argument from nonsense -- Necessity -- Finding Hume's target -- Against the cognitive and geometrical models -- The neighboring fields -- The practicality requirement -- Relations -- The status of relations -- Two kinds of relations -- The nature of necessity -- The definition of causation -- The problem -- Subjectivism or projectivism? -- Conclusion. | |
| 520 | |a Some philosophers think physical explanations stand on their own: what happens, happens because things have the properties they do. Others think that any such explanation is incomplete: what happens in the physical world must be partly due to the laws of nature. Causation and Laws of Nature in Early Modern Philosophy examines the debate between these views from Descartes to Hume. Ott argues that the competing models of causation in the period grow out of the scholastic notion of power. On this Aristotelian view, the connection between cause and effect is logically necessary. Causes are 'intrinsically directed' at what they produce. But when the Aristotelian view is faced with the challenge of mechanism, the core notion of a power splits into two models, each of which persists throughout the early modern period. It is only when seen in this light that the key arguments of the period can reveal their true virtues and flaws. To make his case, Ott explores such central topics as intentionality, the varieties of necessity, and the nature of relations. Arguing for controversial readings of many of the canonical figures, the book also focuses on lesser-known writers such as Pierre-Sylvain Régis, Nicolas Malebranche, and Robert Boyle. | ||
| 542 | |g 2009 |h 20?? | ||
| 650 | 0 | |a Causation. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Philosophy of nature. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Necessity (Philosophy) | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Natural law. | |
| 650 | 0 | |a Ethics. | |
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| 856 | 4 | |u http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=017734279&line_number=0002&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA |z Klappentext | |
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