Add to ORKGI claim that causation is a basic feature of the world, of which no substantial philosophical theory can be given. I critically examine leading contemporary reductive theories that attempt to analyse or explain causation in terms of something else; in each case, I argue that the theory is inadequate in some fundamental way. Further, I suggest that such theories begin from an unduly restrictive viewpoint, and that once we broaden our purview to take in the range and heterogeneity of causal connections that we want to recognise in the world, causation appears not to be the kind of thing of which an illuminating theory should be expected. The thesis is set out in four main sections as follows: (I) Deterministic theories of causation: I begin w...