Causality and determination

Abstract

The article begins with a reflection on the fact that throughout the history of western philosophy, causality has been closely associated with necessity. The author seeks the reason for this connection. She proposes that the imposition of necessity is not in the very meaning of causality. Rather, causality refers to the “derivativeness” of an effect from its cause(s). Hence the question of determinism should not be closed a priori. She then examines the relation between deterministic presuppositions and modern (newtonian and quantum) physics, and she concludes that determinism still dominates the outlook of philosophers in a surprisingly dogmatic way.