Efficient Causation

Tad M. Schmaltz is Professor of Philosophy and James B. and Grace J. Nelson Fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He has published articles and book chapters on various topics in early modern philosophy, and is the author of Malebranche's Theory of the Soul (Oxford, 1996), Radical Cartesianism (Cambridge, 2002), and Descartes on Causation (Oxford, 2008).

• Introduction ; Tad M. Schmaltz ; Part I Ancient and Medieval ; 1. Aristotle and the Discovery of Efficient Causation, Thomas M. Tuozzo ; Reflection: Representations of Efficient Causation in the Iliad, Tobias Myers ; 2. Efficient Causation in the Stoic Tradition, R. J. Hankinson ; 3. Efficient Causation in Late Antiquity and the Earlier Medieval Era, Ian Wilks ; 4. Efficient Causation: From Ibn Sina to Ockham, Kara Richardson ; Reflection: Efficient Causation and Musical Inspiration, Anna Harwell Celenza ; Part II Modern ; 5. Efficient Causation: From Suarez to Descartes, Tad M. Schmaltz ; 6. Efficient Causation in Spinoza and Leibniz, Martin Lin ; Reflection: Reason, Calculating Machines and Efficient Causation, Matthew L. Jones ; 7. Efficient Causation in Malebranche and Berkeley, Lisa Downing ; 8. Efficient Causation in Hume, P. J. E. Kail ; 9. Efficient Causation in Kant, Eric Watkins ; Part III Contemporary ; 10. Contemporary Efficient Causation: Humean Themes, Douglas Ehring ; Reflection:Efficient Causation in Art, Tina Rivers ; 11. Contemporary Efficient Causation: Aristotelian Themes, Stephen Mumford ; Bibliography ; Pre-20th-Century Sources ; 20th- and 21st-Century Literature ; Index

The volume showcases crucial elements that at one point or another entered into philosophical views of efficient causation. It provides a useful framework for taking a fresh look at existing work on causation... This Oxford Philosophical Concepts anthology represents a great first step toward a better, historically situated, understanding of efficient causation. As such it is a welcome addition to the philosophical literature.