The logic of causal propositions

Abstract

The first part of the paper_ outlines the development of causality in Greek philosophy. Some remarks are made on how some medieval philosophers approached to the problem. The paper shows also how modern philosophy understood causation. The paper inquires into the characteristics of causal relation as it is accepted in the domain of modern and recent physics.In the second part of the paper one finds some remarks concerning the programme of construing a new system CI of logic of causal propositions. This system is adequate to the manner in which causality is presented in physics. The system CI is being construed to characterize the connective of relativistic conditionals ‘$\rightsquigarrow$’ by means of the methods of recent logic. This connective should be read as follows: ‘if …, then for that reason …’. The arguments of the connective ‘$\rightsquigarrow$’ may be propositional formulas describing a particular event. The new system of non-classical logic is based on the classical propositional calculus, on the one of systems of temporal logic, and on a system ZI of logic of change. The findings concerning causation, as outlined in the first part of the paper, constitute descriptive semantics of the system CI presented in the second part of the paper. This system may play a positive role in the indirect justification of theorems in philosophy in a broad sense.