Abstract: McDowell’s appeal to causation is problematic. In order to make sense of causal relations linking world and experience (or judgement), he has to identify a species of causation that is in the space of reasons — causation that not only brings about, but also rationalizes its effects. But he does not elucidate this notion. In effect, he simply asserts that there is such a species and that there is a place for second nature (nature structured by relations of normativity) in a world otherwise permeated by first nature (nature structured by nomological relations). Mere assertion is not a substitute for an account of what space-of-reasons causation (second nature) is and how it is possible. We need to know how space-of-reasons causation (second nature) relates to and emerged from realm-of-law causation (first nature).

Keywords: causation, world, experience, space of reasons, first nature, second nature,