Efficient causation : the history of a concept / edited by Tad M. Schmaltz.

Includes bibliographies and index.

Machine generated contents note: -- Introduction -- Tad M. Schmaltz -- Part I Ancient and Medieval -- 1. Aristotle and the Discovery of Efficient Causation, Thomas M. Tuozzo -- Reflection: Representations of Efficient Causation in the Iliad, Tobias Myers -- 2. Efficient Causation in the Stoic Tradition, R. J. Hankinson -- 3. Efficient Causation in Late Antiquity and the Earlier Medieval Era, Ian Wilks -- 4. Efficient Causation: From Ibn Sina to Ockham, Kara Richardson -- Reflection: Efficient Causation and Musical Inspiration, Anna Harwell Celenza -- Part II Modern -- 5. Efficient Causation: From Suárez to Descartes, Tad M. Schmaltz -- 6. Efficient Causation in Spinoza and Leibniz, Martin Lin -- Reflection: Reason, Calculating Machines and Efficient Causation, Matthew L. Jones -- 7. Efficient Causation in Malebranche and Berkeley, Lisa Downing -- 8. Efficient Causation in Hume, P. J. E. Kail -- 9. Efficient Causation in Kant, Eric Watkins -- Part III Contemporary -- 10. Contemporary Efficient Causation: Humean Themes, Douglas Ehring -- Reflection:Efficient Causation in Art, Tina Rivers -- 11. Contemporary Efficient Causation: Aristotelian Themes, Stephen Mumford -- Bibliography -- Pre-20th-Century Sources -- 20th- and 21st-Century Literature -- Index.

"This volume is a contribution to the Oxford Philosophical Concepts series, the main goal of which is to provide historical accounts of the development of central philosophical concepts. Among these concepts would seem to be that of efficient causation (or, today, simply causation). Causation is now commonly supposed to involve a succession that instantiates some law-like regularity. This understanding of causality has a history that includes various interrelated conceptions of efficient causation that date from ancient Greek philosophy and that extend to contemporary discussions of causation in metaphysics and philosophy of science. The consideration here of this history is divided into three sections comprising eleven chapters total. The first section concerns concepts of efficient causation in Aristotle, the Stoics, late antiquity and earlier medieval philosophy, and later medieval philosophy dating from Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) to Ockham. The second concerns the different forms of this concept in the modern period, starting with late scholasticism (as represented in Suaréz) and Descartes, and including Spinoza and Leibniz, Malebranche and Berkeley, Hume, and Kant. Finally, there is a third section divided into a consideration of conceptions of causation in contemporary philosophy that derive from the work of Hume and Aristotle, respectively. A distinctive feature of the volume is that it also includes four short "Reflections" that explore the significance of the concept of efficient causation for literature, the history of music, the history of science and contemporary art theory"--

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