Causes and Explanations: A Structural-Model Approach. Part I: Causes

We propose a new definition of actual causes, using structural equations to model counterfactuals. We show that the definition yields a plausible and elegant account of causation that handles well examples which have caused problems for other definitions and resolves major difficulties in the traditional account. 1. Introduction 2. Causal models: a review2.1Causal models 2.2Syntax and semantics 3. The definition of cause 4. Examples 5. A more refined definition 6. Discussion AAppendix: Some Technical Issues A.1The active causal process A.2A closer look at AC2(b) A.3Causality with infinitely many variables A.4Causality in nonrecursive models