Causation and Explanation
Description
In the section on laws of nature, Psillos considers both the regularity view of laws and laws as relations among universals as well as alternative approaches to laws. In the final section on explanation he examines in detail the issues arising from deductive-nomological explanation and statistical explanation before considering the explanation of laws and the metaphysics of explanation. Accessible to students of all levels the author provides an excellent introduction to one of the most enduring problems of philosophy.
Reviews
"This is the only book I know of that gives a unified treatment of causation, laws, and explanation. Psillos has full command of the literature on these topics and explains the links between the issues masterfully. He gets involved with topics of current controversy and is prepared to take sides but does so with an eye to introducing readers to the central issues." David Papineau, King's College London