The four main concepts of causality

The four main concepts of causality
We all frequently engage in causal thinking, looking for or claiming to have found the causes or effects of something, whether for personal purposes or sundry scientific ones. Our life would be impossible without such thought processes; we would be left blind, unable to understand what goes on and unable to respond. However, most people are not able to say precisely what is meant by the terms ‘causes’, ‘effects’, and ‘causality’.
These terms have, in fact, many meanings. Knowing their various meanings, and the methodology appropriate to each, can considerably improve our ability to find what we are looking for. The concepts of cause and effect were, to begin with, naturally, rather vague and intuitive. But gradually, thanks to the thoughtful work of many philosophers and logicians, many of whom were primarily natural scientists, these concepts have in time become clearer and more precise. In my original works on this subject, I push the effort of clarification and precision to new heights through systematic treatment.
My object in this essay is to present as briefly as possible some of the main concepts, formal analyses, and explications, concerning causality that I have proposed over the years in some of my major works, namely Future Logic (FL, 1990), The Logic of Causation (LC, 1999-2010), Volition and Allied Causal Concepts (VACC, 2004), Logical and Spiritual Reflections (LSR, 2008). This essay is intended as a short introduction to the subject of causality, and to the main tools of causal thinking, to encourage people interested in these issues to study my more detailed works. These works, though very innovative, have unfortunately not to date been as widely studied as they deserved to be.
Causality refers to the abstract relation existing between a cause and its effect(s), or an effect and its cause(s). It is difficult to define because the varieties are technically so different that we are hard put to say just what they have in common.
The study of causality is called ætiology[1]. This is a branch of philosophy. It includes both descriptions of the ways of causality (ratio essendi) and descriptions of the ways to our knowledge of it (ratio cognoscenti), i.e. both the ontology and the epistemology of causality.
The four main concepts of causality are: causation (deterministic causality) and natural spontaneity (non-volitional indeterminism), and volition (free will by human or other souls) and influence (things intuited, perceived or conceived, making will easier or harder, without however annulling its freedom). We use the term ‘causality’ to signify a genus for these four species of cause-effect relations.

[1]              Many now spell this ‘etiology’, but I prefer to retain the older spelling which reflects the Greek etymology (aitia, meaning cause).