Causality has a central role in physical thought; but there is wide variation, historically, in what is ascribed to particular causal properties such as degree of determinism, past‐future asymmetry, and requirement of physical plausibility. Doctrines of causality in Aristotle, Newtonian mechanics, David Hume, Bertrand Russell, and current quantum theory are examined. Although philosophical analysis is a determinant of views of causality, it is apparent that there is also a strong interdependence between what has been established in science and what is accepted as the principle of causality.