Understanding counterfactuals, understanding causation: issues in philosophy and psychology

A team of leading philosophers and psychologists present a fresh analysis ofthe connections between causal relations and counterfactual judgments. They examine the cognitive underpinnings of causal and counterfactual reasoning, andthe impact of empirical work in cognition on philosophical concerns about causation and counterfactuals. How are causal judgements such as 'The ice on the road caused the traffic accident' connected with counterfactual judgements such as 'If there had not been any ice on the road, the traffic accident would not have happened'? This volume throws new light on this question by uniting, for the first time, psychological and philosophical approaches to causation and counterfactuals. Traditionally, philosophers have primarily been interested inconnections between causal and counterfactualclaims on the level of meaning or truth-conditions. More recently, however, they have also increasingly turned their attention to psychological connectionsbetween causal and counterfactual understanding or reasoning. At the same time, there has been a surge in interest in empirical work on causaland counterfactual cognition amongst developmental, cognitive, and social psychologists--much of it inspired by work in philosophy. In this volume, twelve original contributions from leading philosophers and psychologists explore in detail what bearing empirical findings might have on philosophical concerns about counterfactuals and causation, and how, in turn, work in philosophy might help clarify the issues at stake in empirical work on the cognitive underpinnings of, and relationshipsbetween, causal and counterfactual thought. INDICE: Introduction: Understanding Counterfactuals and Causation Psychological Studies of Causal and Counterfactual Reasoning The Relationship between Children's Causal and Counterfactual Judgments Perceptual Causality, Counterfactuals, and Special Causal Concepts Counterfactual and Other Forms of Conditional Reasoning: Children Lost in the Nearest Possible World Multiple Developments in Counterfactual Thinking Domain-Specific Causal Knowledge and Children's Reasoning about Possibility Mental Simulation and the Nexus of Causal and Counterfactual Explanation Counterfactual Availability and Causal Judgement The Role of Counterfactual Dependence in Causal Judgements Counterfactual and CausalThoughts about Exceptional Events Causation First: Why Causation is Prior to Counterfactuals Suppositions, Conditionals, and Causal Claims

• ISBN: 978-0-19-969513-3
• Editorial: Oxford University
• Encuadernacion: Rústica
• Páginas: 288
• Fecha Publicación: 27/10/2011
• Nº Volúmenes: 1
• Idioma: Inglés