ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes some theses on causation that are characteristic of empiricism. The principle of antecedence and the causal principle are independent of each other. Most positivists have held that the concept of causation should be replaced by or actually reduced to invariable succession in time. The identification of cause with constant antecedent, of causation with invariable succession, has been criticized many times by philosophers. The identification of causal laws with differential equations that can be made to represent an unlimited variety of types of continuous evolution in time has led to a widespread naive solution of the puzzle of quantum mechanics. The validity and usefulness of the field concept are demonstrated, at least in the macroscopic domain, in an indirect way, as is usual with elaborate theoretical concepts, namely, by the far-reaching testable consequences to which field theories lead.
