causality
n. in philosophy, the position that all events have causes, that is, that they are consequences of antecedent events. Traditionally, causality has been seen as an essential assumption of naturalism and all scientific explanation, although some have questioned whether causality is a necessary assumption of science. Others have suggested that, although causality must be assumed, there are different types of causality, each of which makes different metaphysical assumptions about the nature of the world and adopts different criteria about what types of relationships between phenomena can be considered as legitimately causal. See also causation; determinism. —causal
adj.