The Routledge Handbook of Causality and Causal Methods

Phyllis Illari, Federica Russo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN:
  9781032262871
  9781032260198
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040223505
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

The Routledge Handbook of Causality and Causal Methods adopts a pluralistic, interdisciplinary approach to causality. It formulates distinct questions and problems of causality as they arise across scientific and policy fields. Exploring, in a comparative way, how these questions and problems are addressed in different areas, the Handbook fosters dialogue and exchange. It emphasizes the role of the researchers and the normative considerations that arise in the development of methodological and empirical approaches. The Handbook includes authors from all over the world and with many different disciplinary backgrounds, and its 50 chapters appear in print here for the first time. The chapters are organized into the following seven parts:

1. Causal Pluralism from Theory to Practice
2. Causal Theory and the Role of Researchers
3. Features of Causal Systems
4. Causal Methods, Experimentation and Observation
5. Measurement and Data
6. Causality, Knowledge, and Action
7. Causal Theory across Disciplinary Borders

Essential reading for scholars interested in an interdisciplinary approach to causality and causal methods, the volume is also a valuable resource for advanced undergraduates as well as for graduate students interested in delving into the rich field of causality.

Chapters 15 and 36 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: The Mosaic of Causal Theory: Whence and Whither
• Part I Causal Pluralism from Theory to Practice
• Part II Causal Theory and the Role of Researchers
• What is the variety of roles of the researchers (or groups of researchers) in the practices of causal discovery and validation?
• How is causality fundamental and/or practical in different disciplines?
• When are deeper ontological assumptions important and when are they not?
• Part III Features of Causal Systems
• Are there levels of causation? If so, what are they?
• What are the boundaries of (causal) systems? How should we establish or cope with them?
• What aspects of causal complexity are important and how are they handled in research?
• What are the challenges of causal cycles, and what are the best ways of meeting them?
• Part IV Causal Methods, Experimentation and Observation
• Under what circumstances is it (not) necessary to intervene experimentally? Or even to use non-experimental methods?
• How is technology advancing or hindering causal reasoning? Or allowing increased epistemic access to causal relations?
• Part V Measurement and Data
• What kind of metrics or measurement methods do causal methods need?
• What is ‘good quality’ data for causal inference?
• Part VI Causality, Knowledge, and Action
• What are the practices of causal explanation?
• Do we need full knowledge of a system in order to establish causes? What can be done with partial knowledge?
• How is causal evidence to be used in regulatory contexts?
• Part VII Causal Theory Across Disciplinary Borders
• How to theorize causality outside the canon?
• Where should we pioneer causal theory outside philosophical canon?
• How does causal theory make it into the classroom?
• Index