Causalism under the Microscope

Abstract This chapter examines the nature of causalism itself. By comparing causalism with physicalism about the mental, the chapter defends a characterization of causalism in terms of a central grounding claim. It then discusses some consequences of that interpretation: one is that causalism allows for the relevance of any further grounds (the grounds of the relevant causal facts); another is that causalism is itself neutral on the nature of causation and related metaphysical debates. This generates a question about how to accommodate omissions, and absences more generally, within the causalist conception, while still remaining neutral on the ongoing debate about the causal powers of absences. The chapter ends with a proposal about how to do this by appealing to a fallback view: “quasi-causalism” (a view that still respects the essence of causalism).