Reviews
"My very highest recommendation-this book deserves a place on the shelf of every legal academic." --Lawrence Solum, 'Michael Moore's Causation and Responsibility offers an integrated conception of the law, morality, and metaphysice, centered on the notion of causation, grounded in a detailed knowledge of case law, and supported on every point by cogent argument. This is outstanding work. It is a worthy successor to Hart and Honoré's classic Causation in the Law, and I expect that it will guide discussion for many years to come.'Jonathan Schaffer, Legal Theory'The most comprehensive study of this topic since Hart and Honoré, this work pulsates with arguments and examples, all in the service of an integrated picture of the interactions between law, morals, the philosophy of mind, and the metaphysics of causation. Moore's uncompromising realism brings a remarkable unity to his argument, and will form the starting point for any similar discussion from now onwards.'Simon Blackburn, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge'My very highest recommendation-this book deserves a place on the shelf of every legal academic.'Lawrence Solum'This must rank as one of the most successful applications of analytical philosophy to substantive questions of law ever. There are few important questions of criminal, tort, contract, and property law that are not in some significant way intertwined with issues of causation. As a result, there are few such questions that this book leaves untouched, or unchanged. The book should fire the imagination of all willing to look in a fresh way at some of the mostfundamental problems of law. No one trying to think seriously about those problems will be able to proceed, nor indeed would want to proceed, without reckoning with its insights and arguments.'Leo Katz, Frank Carano Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School'Causation and Responsibility bustles with proactive ideas and arguments, explored with rigorous analysis and systematically'Sandy Steel, University of Cambridge, Law Quarterly Review, "This must rank as one of the most successful applications of analytical philosophy to substantive questions of law ever. There are few important questions of criminal, tort, contract, and property law that are not in some significant way intertwined with issues of causation. As a result,there are few such questions that this book leaves untouched, or unchanged. The book should fire the imagination of all willing to look in a fresh way at some of the most fundamental problems of law. No one trying to think seriously about those problems will be able to proceed, nor indeed would wantto proceed, without reckoning with its insights and arguments." --Leo Katz, Frank Carano Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, "The most comprehensive study of this topic since Hart and Honore, this work pulsates with arguments and examples, all in the service of an integrated picture of the interactions between law, morals, the philosophy of mind, and the metaphysics of causation. Moore's uncompromising realismbrings a remarkable unity to his argument, and will form the starting point for any similar discussion from now onwards." --Simon Blackburn, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, The most comprehensive study of this topic since Hart and Honore, this work pulsates with arguments and examples, all in the service of an integrated picture of the interactions between law, morals, the philosophy of mind, and the metaphysics of causation. Moore's uncompromising realism brings a remarkable unity to his argument, and will form the starting point for any similar discussion from now onwards.-- Simon Blackburn, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge
Table of Content
I. The Role of Causation in Moral and Legal Responsibility1. The Embedding of Causation in Legal Liability Doctrines2. Causation and Moral Blameworthiness3. Causation and the Permissibility of Consequentialist Justification within Agent-Relative Morality and the LawII. Presuppositions about the Nature of Causation by Legal Doctrines4. The Law's Own Characterizations of its Causal Requirements5. The Prima Facie Demands of the Law on the Concept of Causation6. Pruning the Law's Demands on a Concept of CausationIII. The First Blind Alley: The Attempt to Replace Proximate Causation with Culpability as a Prerequisite for Legal Liability7. 'Negligence in the Air Will Not Do'8. Conceptual Problems in Applying the Harm-within-the- Risk Test to Crimes/Torts of Negligence9. Normative Problems in Applying the Harm-within-the- Risk Test to Crimes/Torts of Negligence10. The Descriptive Inaccuracy of the Harm-within-the- Risk Analysis as Measuring Proximate CausationIV. The Legal Presupposition of There Being 'Intervening Causes'11. The Legal Doctrines of Intervening Causation12. The Lack of any Metaphysical Basis for the Doctrines of Intervening Causation13. The Superfluity of Accomplice LiabilityV. The Metaphysics of Causal Relata14. A Prolegomenon to the Issue of Causal Relata15. The Facts, Events, States of Affairs, and Tropes DebateVI. The Metaphysics of the Causal Relation16. Counterfactual Conditionals17. The Counterfactual Theory of Causation18. The Role of Counterfactual Dependence as an Independent, Non-causal Desert-determiner19. Generalist Theories of Causation20. Singularist Theories of CausationAppendixContract Law and Causation: An IllustrationBibliography, I. The Role of Causation in Moral and Legal Responsibility1: The Embedding of Causation in Legal Liability Doctrines2: Causation and Moral Blameworthiness3: Causation and the Permissibility of Consequentialist Justification within Agent-Relative Morality and the LawII. Presuppositions about the Nature of Causation by Legal Doctrines4: The Law's Own Characterizations of its Causal Requirements5: The Prima Facie Demands of the Law on the Concept of Causation6: Pruning the Law's Demands on a Concept of CausationIII. The First Blind Alley: The Attempt to Replace Proximate Causation with Culpability as a Prerequisite for Legal Liability7: 'Negligence in the Air Will Not Do'8: Conceptual Problems in Applying the Harm-within-the- Risk Test to Crimes/Torts of Negligence9: Normative Problems in Applying the Harm-within-the- Risk Test to Crimes/Torts of Negligence10: The Descriptive Inaccuracy of the Harm-within-the- Risk Analysis as Measuring Proximate CausationIV. The Legal Presupposition of There Being 'Intervening Causes'11: The Legal Doctrines of Intervening Causation12: The Lack of any Metaphysical Basis for the Doctrines of Intervening Causation13: The Superfluity of Accomplice LiabilityV. The Metaphysics of Causal Relata14: A Prolegomenon to the Issue of Causal Relata15: The Facts, Events, States of Affairs, and Tropes DebateVI. The Metaphysics of the Causal Relation16: Counterfactual Conditionals17: The Counterfactual Theory of Causation18: The Role of Counterfactual Dependence as an Independent, Non-causal Desert-determiner19: Generalist Theories of Causation20: Singularist Theories of CausationAppendixContract Law and Causation: An IllustrationBibliography
