Objects and Properties in Causation

Location
ERI 149
Dates
Wednesday 31 October 2018 (15:15-17:00)
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Philosophy Society Seminar Series 2018/19

  • Title: Objects and Properties in Causation
  • Speaker:  Helen Steward (Leeds)

For more information please contact the convenors, Scott Sturgeon and Henry Taylor.

Abstract

Can objects be causes? Can properties? Apparent difficulties with the candidacy of both kinds of item to play the role of cause have encouraged what I shall call a hybridisation strategy - whereupon entities which are thought to be both sufficiently particular to be causes (as objects are) but also sufficiently fine-grained (as properties are) are argued to be the relata of the causal relation. Examples of such hybrid entities include property instances, tropes and modes. In this talk, I shall argue that the hybridisation strategy is a mistake - and that we should prefer what I shall instead call the diversification strategy which recognises that objects and properties can both play the role of cause, but in importantly different ways.