Philosophy Colloquium

Dr Phillip Meadows (United Arab Emirate University) Title: Absences, Many Absences, and Causation. Abstract: In this paper I offer a partial defence of absence causation in response to two related issues: (i) the problem of many absences, and (ii) Beebee’s claim that there is no metaphysically respectable, principled criterion that the friend of absence causation can appeal to in response to it. I argue that holes provide a counterexample to Beebee’s claim, and I articulate the response to the many absences problem suggested by this case. In the final section I suggest ways this response can be developed to account for common-sense judgments about the causal relevance of other cases of absences.