Causation: A Very Short Introduction

I enjoy reading OUP’s Very Short Introductions, so I was excited to note that a volume on causation is due to published in November 2013. Here are the details:

Stephen Mumford and Rani Lill Anjum, Causation: A Very Short Introduction

978-0-19-968443-4 | November 2013 (estimated)

Any intervention we make in the world around us is premised on there being causal connections that are, to a degree, predictable. It is causation that is at the basis of prediction and also explanation. This Very Short Introduction introduces the key theories of causation and also the surrounding debates and controversies. Do causes produce their effects by guaranteeing them? Do causes have to precede their effects? Can causation be reduced to the forces of physics? And are we right to think of causation as one single
thing at all?

Table of Contents

Introduction: why causation?
1: The problem, or: what's the matter with causation?
2: Regularity, or: causation without connection?
3: Time and space, or: do causes occur before their effects?
4: Necessity, or: do causes guarantee their effects?
5: Counterfactual dependence, or: do causes make a difference?
6: Physicalism, or: is it all transference?
7: Pluralism, or: is causation many different things?
8: Primitivism, or: is causation the most basic thing?
9: Dispositionalism, or: what tends to be?
10: Finding causes, or: where are they?
A very short afterword
Further reading
Index

Those who’ve obtained David Ford’s Theology in the same series may be interested to know that there’s a second edition due out in October.