causalists

Causalists is a label used to describe proponents of a causation-centered approach within various areas of philosophy and science. It is not typically the name of a single, unified school, but rather a loose designation for thinkers who treat causal relations as central to explanation, prediction, or understanding in their field.

In the philosophy of science and metaphysics, causalists argue that causation is a fundamental feature of the world that grounds laws, explanations, and the structure of events. They often favor theories that characterize causation in terms of manipulation, intervention, or counterfactual dependence, and they seek to explain regularities by appealing to underlying causal mechanisms rather than by mere patterns of constant conjunction.

In ethics and the philosophy of action, some causalists hold that responsible agency and moral assessment presuppose robust causal connections between an agent’s mental states and their actions. They may use causal reasoning to account for blame, responsibility, and intentional action, while confronting challenges such as determinism, luck, and distinguishing genuine causal influence from correlation.

Because the term is used across domains with varying arguments and methods, “causalists” does not denote a single doctrine. Instead, it identifies a family of positions united by a shared emphasis on causation as a central explanatory or normative resource. Critics of causalist approaches often argue that causal explanations can be too broad, that causation is a complex, multi-faceted relation, or that alternative accounts can capture phenomena that purely causal theories miss.

See also: causality, causal theory, regularity theory, interventionism, moral responsibility, philosophy of science.