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The Process Theory of Causality

John Venn 2.jpg

I encountered recently the phrase "the process theory of causality." I asked myself, in accord with the lingo of our time, "is that a thing?" So of course I did some googling.

The answer is: Yes. It's a thing Here is a pertinent link I discovered via such googling. : https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199279739.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199279739-e-0011

The process theory of causality (PTC) holds that causal processes are more fundamental than the events they are often said to link. We say "A caused B." The act of striking the match against a hard surface caused it to light on fire. But what really exists is a single underlying process over time, where both A and B are abstracted parts of that whole. 

John Venn is said to have gotten the PTC underway, saying: "Substitute for the time honored 'chain of causation' so often introduced into discussions on this subject the phrase 'a rope of causation' and see what a very different aspect the question will wear."  Venn, portrayed above, is better known for displaying logic as a matter of circles that either do or do not overlap, that either are or are not nested in one another, etc.

At any rate, Venn died in 1923. His comment on the rope of causation was picked up on and elaborated on as a philosophical approach to the question of causation only much more recently, by   Wesley Salmon, the author of SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION AND THE CAUSAL STRUCTURE OF THE WORLD (1988).

I really ought to study up on this stuff, by way of renewing my Mr Know-it-all blowhard license. 
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