Causes need not be Physically Connected to their Effects: The Case for Negative Causation

Negative causation occurs when an absence serves as cause, effect, or causal intermediary. Negative causation is genuine causation, or so I shall argue. It involves no physical connection between cause and effect. Thus causes need not be physically connected to their effects. The terrorist presses the detonator button, and the bomb explodes. Here is causation. But I have not said which way the detonator is wired. Perhaps pressing the button generates an electrical current that connects to the bomb and triggers the explosion: 1 Positive causation: pressing No pressing Pressing Pressing Explosion Explosion 1 What follows are neuron diagrams, which are a useful way to represent causal structures. The conventions are as follows. Filled circles doubly represent firing neurons and occurring events. Unfilled circles doubly represent nonfiring neurons and absences. Arrows doubly represent stimulatory synapses and physical connections. Lines headed with black dots doubly represent inhibitory synapses and preventions (which are not physical connections in the relevant sense: section 10.2). If two neurons are connected by a stim-ulatory connection and the first fires, then the second will fire unless some other neuron inhibits it.