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Trumping and contrastive causation

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Abstract

Jonathan Schaffer introduced a new type of causal structure called ‘trumping’. According to Schaffer, trumping is a species of causal preemption. Both Schaffer and I have argued that causation has a contrastive structure. In this paper, I analyze the structure of trumping cases from the perspective of contrastive causation, and argue that the case is much more complex than it first appears. Nonetheless, there is little reason to regard trumping as a species of causal preemption.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, MC 101-40, California Institute of Technology, Pasdena, CA, 91125, USA

    Christopher Hitchcock

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  1. Christopher Hitchcock
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Correspondence to Christopher Hitchcock.

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Hitchcock, C. Trumping and contrastive causation. Synthese 181, 227–240 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-010-9799-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-010-9799-y

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