Re: BHA: Causal powers of absences? and other things

[Colin Wight <Colin.Wight@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Caroline,

>But what sense?  I dont believe that absences can be causally
>powerful.  Its only in a grammatical sense that the hole in the ozone
>layer , rather than what it lets through,  has causal power.

What about the way the hole in the ozone layer "causes" increased cases of
skin cancer. Of course, on a Humean account of cause we might say that it
is simply increased exposure to sun rays (i.e. a constant conjuction), but
on a realist account of cause and given an open world the hole is certainly
part of the causal complex, for without it skin cancer rates "may" not have
risen. Moreover, this is a real causal effect that would happen whether
known or not. Also how about anarchy (defined as the absence of world
government) in the international realm as one of the causes of
international conflict? The absence of food as the cause of my hunger
(which reminds me - time for lunch)? The absence of Pierre the cause of my
grief (because Pierre's absence from here does not denote his presence
elsewhere - Pierre might be dead, hence my grief)? I have, however,
previously voiced my own concerns on the overstetching of the use of
absence, and I think Collier pointed out this danger in his review of
Dialectic, and I think that in a sense almost every absence can be
described as a presence - but maybe this is what RB is getting at, or
attacking. But that said, I don't have any problem in talking of absences a
real, and hence as things that may have causal powers.


Thanks,



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Dr. Colin Wight
Department of International Politics
University of Wales
Aberystwyth
Tel: (01970) 621769
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