# the visual experience of causation chapter 5 **Opening (not a real abstract):** Causal Thesis: Some visual experiences represent causal relations. What is a causal relation? Consider the relations of pushing, pulling, lifting, stopping, moving, supporting, hanging-from, and preventing something from happening. These might naturally be considered modes of causation: they are specific ways to cause something else to happen. There also seems to be a more general relation that these relations exemplify—causation itself. There may be relations that are less specific than the "modes" I have listed but more specific than causation itself—such as the varieties of mechanical causation discussed by Albert Michotte.1 In plain launching, an object A approaches a stationary object B, which upon contact starts to move in the same direction in which A was moving. In launching by--entraining, A pushes B along. In launchingby-expulsion, B moves as if thrown by A.2 Michotte distinguished **Authors:** [[siegel]]