Aristotle on Causation, Explanation and Social Events

CRESPO, RICARDO F.

San Petersburgo

Jornada; X INEM Conference; 2012

Injternational Network for Economic Method

This paper revisits Aristotle?s conception of explanation and causation in order to link it with current positions on explanation and causes in the social sciences, particularly, in economics. Section 1 explains the Aristotelian conception about the nature and types of causes, and the relation between explanation and causation. Section 2 determines whether Aristotle was a determinist or an indeterminist in the physical realm. Section 3 examines the nature of the dissimilarity between the physical and the human field considering its effects on social interactions. Section 4 explores links with contemporary ideas on causation and mechanisms, including Nancy Cartwright?s notion of capacities, conceptions of teleological mechanisms, and Reiss? proposal of a more evidence-base economics.