Acta Academica (Apr 2009)

The notion of cause in science and politics

  • Murray Faure

DOI
https://doi.org/10.38140/aa.v41i2.1205
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 41, no. 2

Abstract

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This article explores some of the features and implications of causality and how the use of this contested concept may be understood and appraised as it applies to the world of politics and, in more detail, the scientific study thereof. In the teaching and learning of politics serious attention is seldom paid to the nature, implications, uses and limitations of causality as a fundamental ontological category in our quest for understanding and explanation. The article explores the conventional as well as some alternative notions of causality, and concludes with an appraisal of the significance of understandng causality.