A Criterion of Causation

The idea of what counts as a cause of some consequence has evolved over centuries. The newtonian conception is rooted ini a metaphor of impact, right? Imagine two billiard balls, a and b, and a bumps into b and makes comlete b move according to the deterministic laws of newtonian physics. A second notion of causation came along with the advent of chemistry where people realized that causes and effects might involve transformation not simply impact. And i think then a of thermo dynamics, which would be a kind of third conception of causation, causation came to be thought of as probablistic.