Causes and Explanations: A Structural-Model Approach, Part I: Causes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a structural-model approach to defining actual causation, providing a more plausible and elegant account that addresses traditional difficulties and problematic examples in causation theory.

Contribution

It presents a new definition of actual cause using structural equations, improving upon previous accounts by handling complex causation scenarios effectively.

Findings

The new definition handles classic causation puzzles.

It resolves major difficulties in traditional causation accounts.

Provides a formal, structural-model framework for causation.

Abstract

We propose a new definition of actual cause, using structural equations to model counterfactuals. We show that the definition yields a plausible and elegant account of causation that handles well examples which have caused problems for other definitions and resolves major difficulties in the traditional account.