Foundations of Causation

Drawing on historical episodes where new fields of science branch out of philosophy, I offer six distinctive developments involved in such episodes as a template that can be applied to the contemporary example of causation branching out of philosophy to become a new science. In a potted history of major developments in causation since the beginning of the 20th century, I illustrate how these developments occurred in important points in the ongoing discussion around causation. I conclude by giving a general characterization of what it is that foundations do in any science, what they do in causation, and where the next steps are needed to finalize this process of launching causation as an independent science.