Choose one of the following topics for Essay III. 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, April 10 by 11:59pm. Please submit your essay on line via blackboard (https://portal.utoronto.ca).

1. Omissions. What is causation by omissions? What special problems does it raise for theories of causation? Is there really any such thing as omission causation? If there is, discuss which possible theory of causation will best handle omission causation?
   


2. Transitivity. What is meant by saying that causation is transitive? It seems like a simple idea, but there are cases that seem to violate the transitivity of causation. Describe these sorts of cases, discuss how they work, and consider how a theory of causation should deal with them.
   


3. A Theory of Causation I. Here is a simple theory of causation:
   
   C causes E is true just in case,
   (1) C is a member of a set of events that suffices for E (according to the basic laws of physics, as in the sufficiency account, but note there is no claim of uniqueness or minimalness), and
   (2) C explains E.
   
   Consider how well this theory deals with our typical problem cases (preemption, omission, transitivity, etc). What objections can be raised against it?


4. A Theory of Causation II. Devise your own reductive theory of causation (using any of the tools, ideas, etc we have studied). Try to show how your theory gives good answers to the problems facing any theory of causation (preemption, omission, transitivity, etc.).