Causation: tropes versus universals (F. Orilia)

Abstract

It is plausible and in line with common sense to take causal relata to be events. There are however various ways in which events can be understood. In particular one can rely on either tropes or universals in characterizing them. Moreover, one can conceive of events as either repeatable or unrepeatable entities. I shall characterize some prominent options that emerge from contemporary metaphysics and compare them in terms of how they fare as causal relata.