Causal asymmetries

by Daniel M. Hausman

This book by an eminent contemporary philosopher of science offers the first comprehensive treatment of causal asymmetries. It explains why a relationship that is asymmetrical in one of these regards is asymmetrical in others. Hausman discovers surprising hidden logical connections between apparently unrelated aspects of causation and traces them all to an asymmetry of independence, which he argues is constitutive of the causal relation. This is a major book for metaphysicians and philosophers of science that will also prove stimulating to statisticians and scientists.