Choose one of the following topics for Essay I. Your essay should be no more than 2000 words long and no less than 1800 words. Your essay should exhibit both knowledge of the relevant material and an ability to formulate your own criticisms and philosophical argumentation. The essay is due on Thursday, March 20 by 11:59pm. Please submit your essay on line via blackboard (https://portal.utoronto.ca).

1. Preemption. What is the problem of causal preemption? Discuss how preemption threatens to undermine the main theories of causation (e.g. counterfactual, regularity, de facto dependence, etc.). Consider the various types of preemption and assess which is the most difficult to include or explain in a reductive theory of causation.
   


2. Overdetermination. What is causal overdetermination? Why does it present a problem for our various reductive theories of causation? Discuss and assess the best ways to deal with overdetermination.
   


3. Non-Reductive Theories and Causation. The authors describe a general philosophical problem which involves overdetermination: if we are non-reductionists about some domain, T, (e.g. the mind, ordinary objects composed of physical parts, etc) and also believe that this domain depends on a more fundamental domain, B, then it looks like events involving T-objects are overdetermining causes along with the events involving B-objects. Explain the nature of this problem and how it arises. Consider how one might avoid the problem of overdetermination in this case.