THE LOGIC OF CAUSATION

© Avi Sion, 1999, 2003. All rights reserved.

Abstract

The Logic of Causation is a treatise of formal logic and of aetiology (the study of causality as such). It is an original and wide-ranging investigation of the definition of causation (deterministic causality) in all its forms, and of the deduction and induction of such forms. This study is part of a larger work on causal logic, which additionally treats volition and allied cause-effect relations.

Starting with the paradigm of causation, its most obvious and strongest form, we can by abstraction of its defining components distinguish four genera of causation, or generic determinations, namely: complete, partial, necessary and contingent causation. When these genera and their negations are combined together in every which way, and tested for consistency, it is found that only four species of causation, or specific determinations, remain conceivable.

The concept of causation thus gives rise to a number of positive and negative propositional forms, which can be studied in detail with relative ease because they are compounds of conjunctive and conditional propositions whose properties are already well known to logicians. The logical relations (oppositions) between the various determinations (and their negations) are investigated, as well as their respective implications (eductions).

Thereafter, their interactions (in syllogistic reasoning) are treated in the most rigorous manner. The question we try to answer here is: is (or when is) the cause of a cause of something itself a cause of that thing, and if so to what degree? The figures and moods of positive causative syllogism are listed exhaustively; and the resulting arguments validated or invalidated, as the case may be. In this context, a universal and sure method of evaluation called ‘matricial analysis’ is developed. Because this (initial) method is cumbersome, it is used as little as possible; the remaining cases being evaluated by means of reduction.

The Logic of Causation thus deals with the main technicalities relating to reasoning about causation. Some issues are, however, left unresolved in this first phase, because the (macroanalytic) methods introduced thus far are inadequate to resolve them. In a later phase, when more precise (microanalytic) methods are introduced, all such outstanding questions are systematically answered.

Once all the deductive characteristics of causation in all its forms have been treated, we are able to discuss more intelligently its epistemological and ontological status – how it is induced, how far it is applicable, and so forth. In this context, past theories of causation can be reviewed and evaluated. Some of the issues involved here, however, can only be dealt with in a larger perspective, after volition and other aspects of causality have been duly investigated.