Date: Fri, 09 May 1997 15:40:31 +0100
From: COLIN WIGHT <ccw94-AT-aber.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: BHA: Re: Reason and causes


Ruth,

The key place is in PON the chapter on agency. There RB does some really
deep critiques of the reasons vs causes issues. Funnily enough it is also
more than a little analytical as opposed to some of the more programmatic
statements. But this issue, you have to realise, depends upon what account
of cause one is using. The Wittgensteinian rejection of reasons as causes,
which Peter Winch picks up and turns into a dogma, is firmly predicated on a
Humean account of cause. That is reasons simply can't be causes because the
reason(A) can be present but not necessarily lead to(B). Bhaskar's account
of cause can accomodate this.

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Colin Wight
Department of International Politics
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth
SY23 3DA

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