(University of the Free State, 2009) Faure, Murray
English: This article explores some of the features and implications of causality and how the
use of this contested concept may be understood and appraised as it applies to the
world of politics and, in more detail, the scientific study thereof. In the teaching
and learning of politics serious attention is seldom paid to the nature, implications,
uses and limitations of causality as a fundamental ontological category in our quest
for understanding and explanation. The article explores the conventional as well
as some alternative notions of causality, and concludes with an appraisal of the
significance of understanding causality.