Reviews
A friendly introductory book with detailed explanations that make everything understandable. I recommend it. It is not some trashy book that just summarizes and compresses the content in a way that is incomprehensible.
This book presents various theories related to ‘causation’ in a neat and easy-to-understand manner, accompanied by examples. However, if you lack very basic knowledge of logic, reading it might be a bit difficult; yet, since the book does provide explanations for that, there is no need to worry too much. Although logic involves concepts different from everyday language and includes unfamiliar symbols that might be intimidating, anyone will be able to understand it if they savor each word
A book that explains existing theories of causation in a way that even the general public can understand. In fact, there are rarely any books that claim to be "easy-to-understand books," but this is an exception. However, you might be intimidated by the unfamiliar symbols and the feeling evoked by the name "logic" at first glance, but once you actually read it, you will find that it is easier than the level of set theory taught in middle school.
Kim Dong-hyun et al.: Causality
Causation (cause and effect, or the relationship between cause and effect) is a subject closely related to verification, probability, laws, and explanation, and is actively studied in various academic fields, including not only the philosophy of science but also metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind. This book focuses its discussion on the fundamental question, "What is causation?" and introduces representative theories that offer their own appropriate answers to this question. Chapter 1 serves as an introduction, analyzing expressions regarding causal relationships used in various ways in our daily lives and academic fields, and explains the necessity of discussing the nature of causation to accurately conceptualize causal relationships and causation. Chapter 2 introduces the theory of regularity, which serves as the starting point for modern discussions on causation. It presents the theory of the modern philosopher David Hume, who analyzed causation by defining it as conditions established between events, and the theory of causation by J. L. Mackie, who developed this theory in a modern context to explain the meaning of regularity using common-sense concepts such as necessary and sufficient conditions. Chapter 3 introduces the counterfactual causation theory developed by D. K. Lewis. Lewis's counterfactual theory analyzes the causal statement "C is the cause of E" by utilizing the structure "...if... had not happened,... would not have happened." This approach gained persuasiveness in that it inherits the intuition of regularity theory while avoiding difficulties such as the problem of common causes. Chapter 4 introduces the probabilistic causation theory. This position holds that a cause alters the probability of an effect. According to this theory, "C is the cause of E" is analyzed as "C increases the probability of E occurring."
Korean title: 인과
Korean author: 김동현 외
Korean publisher: 서광사
ISBN-13: 9788930623827
Reviews
A friendly introductory book with detailed explanations that make everything understandable. I recommend it. It is not some trashy book that just summarizes and compresses the content in a way that is incomprehensible.
This book presents various theories related to ‘causation’ in a neat and easy-to-understand manner, accompanied by examples. However, if you lack very basic knowledge of logic, reading it might be a bit difficult; yet, since the book does provide explanations for that, there is no need to worry too much. Although logic involves concepts different from everyday language and includes unfamiliar symbols that might be intimidating, anyone will be able to understand it if they savor each word
A book that explains existing theories of causation in a way that even the general public can understand. In fact, there are rarely any books that claim to be "easy-to-understand books," but this is an exception. However, you might be intimidated by the unfamiliar symbols and the feeling evoked by the name "logic" at first glance, but once you actually read it, you will find that it is easier than the level of set theory taught in middle school.
