Causing is Achieving -- A solution to the problem of causation

TL;DR

This paper proposes a unified systemic function approach to causation, identifying 'Achieves' as the core of causation and providing a complete explanation of its nature.

Contribution

It offers a novel causal theory where all causes are reducible to the single function 'Achieves,' completing the understanding of causation's nature.

Findings

Causation can be modeled via systemic functions.

All causes decompose into Achieves, Prevents, Allows, Disallows.

Achieves alone suffices to explain causation.

Abstract

From the standpoint of applied ontology, the problem of understanding and modeling causation has been recently challenged on the premise that causation is real. As a consequence, the following three results were obtained: (1) causation can be understood via the notion of systemic function; (2) any cause can be decomposed using only four subfunctions, namely Achieves, Prevents, Allows, and Disallows; and (3) the last three subfunctions can be defined in terms of Achieves alone. It follows that the essence of causation lies in a single function, namely Achieves. It remains to elucidate the nature of the Achieves function, which has been elaborated only partially in the previous work. In this paper, we first discuss a couple of underlying policies in the above-mentioned causal theory since these are useful in the discussion, then summarize the results obtained in the former paper, and finally reveal the nature of Achieves giving a complete solution to the problem of what causation is.