ABSTRACT
Most powers-based accounts assume, in accordance with the standard view, that interactions are unidirectional; one object acts while another passively receives the influence. This assumption arguably contradicts the theories and findings of natural science, which take it to be established that unidirectional actions do not exist. They insist that every interaction is perfectly reciprocal; all interacting entities simultaneously act on each other, to the same magnitude, and in the same way. The author shows how the standard view can be modified to accommodate the reciprocity of interactions. The modification requires that we neither treat the action of one, or any other object, as a cause, but only the interaction as a whole. Also, that we treat the sum total of changes produced in all the things involved as the effect. This allows a perfectly intelligible analysis of the idea that cause and effect are simultaneous, and a novel analysis of the generic connection between cause and effect: the effect is made out of the same entities that were involved in its production. That is, it is argued that the most fundamental feature of causation is reciprocal action, or interaction as this is defined by the natural sciences.
