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AND MODERN SCIENCE
Fourth Revised Edition
with 0 r.ew Introductiorl and
POS'SC~PI by the oult\of
CAUSALITY
AND MODERN SCIENCE
 NOTE TO THE READER
The reader is asked not to attach to the
words 'ca usali ty' and 'determinism' in the text
the meanings he has customarily assigned to
them. Definitions of these and other key terms
are worked out in Part I of the book.
The few elementary mathematical and
logical signs occurring in the text should not
put anybody off, since they are usually ex-
plained in plain words.
Unless explicitly stated otherwise, italics in
quotations belong to the authors quoted.
References to books are given in the text in
a sketchy form. Details will be found in the
Bibliography.
 •
Transaction Publishers
New Brunswick (U.S.A.) and London (U.K.)
Copyright © 2009 by Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, New Jersey.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information stor-
age and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
All inquiries should be addressed to Transaction Publishers, Rutgers—The State
University of New Jersey, 35 Berrue Circle, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-8042.
www.transactionpub.com

This book is printed on acid-free paper that meets the American National Standard
for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2008025316

ISBN: 978-1-4128-1215-3 (E-Book)
Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication

Bunge, Mario Augusto.

Causality and modern science / Mario Bunge.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York : Dover Publications, c1979.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4128-0824-8
1. Causation. 2. Determinism (Philosophy). 3. Science—Philosophy.
I. Title.

BD541.B85 2008
122—dc22
2008025316
 Contents
Preface to the Transaction Edition xv
Preface to the Third Edition xix
Preface to the Second Edition xxix
Preface to the First Edition xxx
Acknowledgments xxxiii
VI Contents
1.6. Causation and Determination: Main Views 26
1.7. Conclusions 29

2. FORMULATIONS OF THE CAUSAL PRINCIPLE

2. I. Definitions of Cause 3I
2.1.1. The Aristotelian Teaching of Causes
2. I .2. Galileo's Definition of Cause

2.2. General Features of any Formulation of the Causal

Principle 35
2.3. The Constant-Conjunction Formula of Causation 37
2.4. Criticism of the Constant-Conjunction Formula of
Causation 40
2.4.1. The Uniqueness of the Causal Bond: Neg-
lected in the Previous Formula
2.4.2. The Efficacy of Causation: Denied by the
Humean Doctrine of Causation
2.4.3. Inadequacy of the Constant-Conjunction
Formula
2.5. Causation as Necessary (Constant and Unique)
Production 46
2.6. Supposed Further Refinements of the Necessary-
Production Formula of Causation 48
2.7. Retrospect and Conclusion 52

PART II
WHAT CAUSAL DETERMINISM DOES NOT ASSERT

3. AN EXAMINATION OF THE EMPIRICIST CRITIQ,UE OF

CAUSALITY
3.1. Does Causality Involve Contiguity? 58
3. I. I. Contiguity: An Essential Component of
Causation According to Humeans
 Contents
3.1.2. Contiguity: A Hypothesis Inconsistent with
Empiricism
3. I .3. Explicit Definitions of Causation Do Not
Involve Contiguity
3.2. Does Causality Involve Antecedence? 62
3.2.1. Causality Is Consistent with Instantaneous
Links
3.2.2. The Principle of Retarded Action in Special
Relativity
3.3. Is Causation Identical with Invariable Succession in
Time? 68
3.3. I. The Interpretation of Causal Process as Suc-
cession of States
3.3.2. The Interpretation of Causation as Predictive
Ability
3.3.3. Descriptions of Change as Sequence of States
Need Not Be Causal
3+ Is Causation Mirrored by Differential Equations? 74
3+ I. Differential Equations as Mirror Images of
Uniform Sequences: A Confusion of Dimen-
sions of Language
3.4.2. Noncausal Laws Formulated with the Help of
Differential Equations
3+3. Integral Equations and Teleology
3.4+ The Empirical Test of Differential Equations
and the Question of the "True Elementary
Laws of Nature"
3.5. Summary and Conclusions 86

4. AN EXAMINATION OF THE ROMANTIC CRITIQUE OF

CAUSALITY
4. I. Should Causation Be Replaced by Interdependence? 9I
4. I . I. The Functional View of Causation
4.1.2. Criticism of the Functional View of Causation
4.1.3. Strange Features of the Functional View of
Causation
VIII Contents
4.2. Causality and Universal Interconnection: The Block
Universe and Chance 98
4.3. Is Causality Fatalistic? 101
4.3.1. The Other-Worldliness of Fatalism
4.3.2. The Lawlessness of Fatalism
4.3.3. The Interference of Causes Defeats Fate
4.3.4. Are Historical Events Inevitable?

4.4. Is Causality Mechanistic-And is Mechanics Al-

together Causal? 107
4-4. I. Mechanics Restricts Causes to Forces
4.4.2. Self-Movement in Mechanics: Inertia
4-4.3. Causation in the Laws of Motion of Aristotle,
N ewton, and Einstein
4.4.4. Action-Reaction, and Inner Stress
4.5. Summary and Conclusions I 15

PART III
WHAT CAUSAL DETERMINISM DOES ASSERT

5. THE LINEARITY OF CAUSATION

5.1. Is Multiple Causation Strictly Causal? I 19
5. I. I. Simple and Multiple Causation
5.1.2. Conjunctive Plurality of Causes: Reducible to
Simple Causation
5. i .3. Disjunctive Plurality of Causes: Genuine
Multiple Causation
5. I .4. Multiple Causation Is Not Strictly Casual
5.2. Causality Involves Artificial Isolation 125
5.2.1. The Universal Chaining
5.2.2. Isolation: Fictitious
5. 2 .3. Isolation: A Methodological Requirement
5. 2 .4. Paradoxes of Isolation
5.2.5. Causal Chains: A First Approximation
Range
x Contents
6.2.3. Randomness as Further Illustration of Non-
additivity of Causal Factors
6.3. Summary and Conclusions 170

7. THE EXTERNALITY OF CAUSATION

7.1. Causality: Restricted to Extrinsic Determination 173
7. I. I. Efficient Causes: External by Definition
7.1.2. The Peripatetic Principle" Omne quod movetur
ab alio movetur"
7. I .3. Causal Determinism Opposes Self-Movement
7.1.4. The Doctrine of Self-Movement
7. I .5. External Causes Combine with Inner Condi-
tions
7.1.6. Freedom: Is It Restricted to the Ethical
Domain?
7.2. Does Man Make Himself?
7.2. I. Anthropological Environmentalism
7.2.2. Externalism in Sociopolitical History
7.2.3. The Doctrine of Borrowing in the History of
Ideas
7.2.4. Man, the Self-Domesticated Animal
7.3. Causality Requires the Persistent Maintenance of
the Cause to Secure the Continuance of Process 190
7·3· I. The Peripatetic Maxim" Causa cessante cessat
effectus"
7.3. 2 • Instances of Self-Sustained Processes
7+ Summary and Conclusions 194

8. CAUSALITY AND NOVELTY

8. I. Causalism Entails the Scholastic Dichotomy Sub-
stance-Attribute 198
8. I. I. The Impact of Causalism on the Theory of
the Substance-Attribute Relation
8.1.2. Contingency of Attributes in Hegelianism and
Positivism
8. I .3. Beyond Causalism and Accidentalism
 Contents XI

8.2. Causality Renders Genuine Novelty Impossible 20 3

8.2.1. The Principle "Causa aequat ~ffectum"
8.2.2. Archaic Origins of Belief in Immutability
8.2·3· Conservative Evolution: From Thomism to
Mechanism
8.2·4· Qualitative Immutability and Causation In
Kantianism
8.2·5· General Lawfulness Accounts for the Novelty
Excluded by Causalism
8.2.6. Positive Features of the Invariance Asserted
by Causality
8·3· Summary and Conclusions 21 7

PART IV
THE FUNCTION OF THE CAUSAL PRINCIPLE IN
SCIENCE

9. CAUSALITY AND RATIONAL KNOWLEDGE

9. I. Is Causality Characteristic of Modern Science? 224
9.2. Cause and Reason 226
9.3. Causation and the Principle of Sufficient Reason 229
9+ Limits of the Principle of Sufficient Reason in Con-
nection with Theoretical Systems 232
9+ I. Should Everything Be Rationalized?
9.4.2. The" Principle" of Insufficient Reason
9.5. Limits of the Principle of Sufficient Reason in Con-
nection with Matters of Fact 236
9.6. On the Formalization of Causal Statements 239
9.6. I. Logical Equivalents, or Logical Correlates of
the Causal Connection?
9.6.2. Causation and Implication (Material, Strict,
and Causal); the Relational Approach
9.7. Recapitulation and Conclusions
XII Contents
10. CAUSALITY AND SCIENTIFIC LAW
10.1. Law and Law Statement 248
10.2. The Traditional Identification of Causality and
Lawfulness 252
10.3. Some Noncausal Types of Scientific Law 255
10.3.1. Taxonomical and Morphological Laws
10.3.2. Kinematical Laws
10.3.3. Further Noncausal Laws: Statistical Laws,
Principles of Relativity, and Quantum
Prohibitions
10+ Causality and Lawfulness in the Sociohistorical
Sciences 262
10.4.1. Are Sociology and History Scientific Disci-
plines?
10.4.2. The Uniqueness of Historical Events
10.4.3. The Lawfulness of Historical Processes
10.4+ Obstacles to Disclosure of Historical Laws
10+5. Noncausal Features of Sociohistorical
Events
10.4.6. Scientific Exactness: Not Exhausted by
Numerical Accuracy
10+ 7. The Defense of Scientific Method in the
Sociohistorical Sciences
10.5. Conclusions 280

I I. CAUSALITY AND SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION

I I. I. Is Science Explanatory? 282
I I .2. Some Aspects of the Problem of Scientific Explana-
tion 286
11.2.1. Conditions for an Explanation to Be
Scientific
11.2.2. The Logical Structure and Epistemological
Meaning of Scientific Explanation
 Contents
11.2.3. The Ontological Basis of Scientific Ex-
planation. Explanation of Facts and
Explanation of Laws
11.3. Explanations That Can Be Causal 295

I 1+ Noncausal Explanations 29 8

I 1.5. Conclusions 30 5

12. CAUSALITY AND SCIENTIFIC PREDICTION

12. I. Nature and Functions of Scientific Prediction 307
12.1.1. Nature of Prediction According to Law
12.1. 2. Predictive Nomological Statements: A
Third Level of Meaning of' Law'
12.1.3. Functions of Scientific Prediction

12.2. Kinds of Prediction 312

12·3· Statistical Prediction 315
12.3.1. Insufficiency of Prediction of Individual
Events
12.3.2. The Statistical Predictions of the Sciences
of Man
12.3.3. Are Statistical Predictions Less Complete
Than Others?
2.4. Degrees of Certainty in Prediction 320
12.4.1. Uncertainty with Causal Laws and Quasi
Certainty with Statistical Laws
12.4.2. Almost Necessary Truths of Fact
12+3. Grounds for the Failure of Specific Pre-
dictions
12.5. Should Causality be Defined in Terms of Pre-
dictability? 326
12.5. I. The Posi ti vist Criterion of Causality
12.5.2. Uncertainty and Causality in Quantum
Mechanics
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