Causation as Property Acquisition

Persistence theories of causation - such as transference theory, conserved-quantity theory, and Douglas Ehring's theory - attempt to analyze causation in terms of some persisting entity connecting cause and effect. While most persistence accounts are intended as empirical theories, this article develops a persistence analysis of the concept of causation. The basic idea is that the central concept of direct causation can be analyzed in terms of property acquisition. The analysis coheres with our ordinary causal judgments and provides a straightforward explanation of the direction of causation. It also explains why backwards causation is conceptually problematic.