PHI403 Lecture 07 — One Effect, One Cause?

Challenges the methodological habit of seeking the cause — singular — of an effect. Most real effects are produced by many causes working together; isolating "the" cause is a simplification.

Overdetermination — more than one cause is present, each sufficient alone (two gunshots each lethal).
Joint causation — multiple causes are all necessary; none redundant. Mackie's INUS conditions: a cause is an Insufficient but Necessary part of an Unnecessary but Sufficient condition.
Mutual manifestation partners (C.B. Martin) — a cause needs partners to do its work; a burning cigarette cannot ignite a fire without something flammable and oxygen.

Context is the carrier of causal identity: heating causes boiling, melting, burning, fever, drought, growth, ripening, explosion — depending on what else is present. Isolating a factor from its context can therefore erase its causal role rather than reveal it.

This lecture is a direct challenge to RCT methodology, which tests one causal factor at a time on the assumption that context-stripping reveals genuine causal contributions.

Connections

Back-link: sources/2023-anjum-rocca-phi403-causation-in-science. Concepts: concepts/dispositionalism · concepts/rct-limitations · concepts/causation.