Book: Physical Causation, by Phil Dowe
Review: Review of Physical Causation by Phil Dowe (forthcoming in PPR), by Robert Koons

Robert Koons: "In Physical Causation, Phil Dowe proposes a Conserved Quality account of causation and offers criticisms of several alternatives, including Humean, counterfactual, and mark transmission accounts. Dowe eschews “conceptual analysis” and instead offers his theory as an “empirical account of causation at it is in the actual world.” Dowe takes this as absolving him of the responsibility of giving an account of the essence of causation, threatening to turn his metaphysical account into a watered-down version of more-or-less contemporary physical theory. Nonetheless, on the basis of the strength of many of the criticisms of alternatives, I can recommend this book to anyone interested in contemporary debate about causation.

Dismissive of conceptual analysis, Dowe often gives no weight to ordinary usage or “folk intuitions”. However, he is not consistent in this disavowal. For example, on page 91, Dowe argues that our ontology should include anything found in the ontology of science or common sense. If common sense is a reliable guide to ontology, why is it an entirely unreliable source of intuitions about causation? (See similar appeals on p. 23, p. 36, and pp. 124-5.) When his theory runs into any conflict with common-sense intuitions, he lightly dismisses them as irrelevant but readily appeals to them when needed to defend his own account against a rival."

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