Causal Overdetermination And Contextualism
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Causal Overdetermination And Contextualism
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Author : Esteban Céspedes
language : en
Publisher: Springer
Release Date : 2016-06-02
Causal Overdetermination And Contextualism written by Esteban Céspedes and has been published by Springer this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-06-02 with Philosophy categories.
This work explains how different theories of causation confront causal overdetermination. Chapters clarify the problem of overdetermination and explore its fundamental aspects. It is argued that a theory of causation can account for our intuitions in overdetermination cases only by accepting that the adequacy of our claims about causation depends on the context in which they are evaluated.The author proposes arguments for causal contextualism and provides insight which is valuable for resolution of the problem. These chapters enable readers to quickly absorb different perspectives on overdetermination and important theories of causation, therefore it is a work that will have a broad appeal.
A Variety Of Causes
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Author : Paul Noordhof
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2020-09-03
A Variety Of Causes written by Paul Noordhof and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2020-09-03 with Philosophy categories.
This is the first book length defence of a counterfactual theory of causation. The analysis defended is new. It expresses the idea that, independent of its competitors, a cause raises the chance of an effect over its mean background chance by a complete causal chain. The analysis depends upon a novel development of David Lewis's Theory of Counterfactuals. One consequence of the analysis is that causation is not transitive. Causation is also nonsymmetric. The counterfactual basis of causal nonsymmetry is the result of a number of different, and sometimes interacting, nonsymmetries. The analysis allows for the development of a novel theory of events whose nature is independent of their role in causation and the identification of one other important causal relationship: property causation. Although compatible with Hume's denial of necessary connections between distinct existences, a key feature of the theory is that it benefits from being independent of the Humean framework. There are two ways in which something may be metaphysically fundamental: vertically and horizontally. Many metaphysicians emphasise vertical fundamentality and focus on truth making. The book rejects this emphasis and the truth making approach in particular. Horizontally fundamental metaphysical entities are those that are necessary components in different possible universes. Causation has a claim to be horizontally fundamental: the cement of any universe. Laws are patterns of causation realised in different metaphysical frameworks such as those articulated by Lewis, Armstrong and the powers ontologists. The book recognises varieties of causation both in, for example, counting cases of double prevention and causation by genuine processes as types of causation, and allowing that the analysis identifies causes across these different metaphysical frameworks.
The Oxford Handbook Of Causation
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Author : Helen Beebee
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2012-01-12
The Oxford Handbook Of Causation written by Helen Beebee and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2012-01-12 with Philosophy categories.
Causation is a central topic in many areas of philosophy. In metaphysics, philosophers want to know what causation is, and how it is related to laws of nature, probability, action, and freedom of the will. In epistemology, philosophers investigate how causal claims can be inferred from statistical data, and how causation is related to perception, knowledge and explanation. In the philosophy of mind, philosophers want to know whether and how the mind can be said to have causal efficacy, and in ethics, whether there is a moral distinction between acts and omissions and whether the moral value of an act can be judged according to its consequences. And causation is a contested concept in other fields of enquiry, such as biology, physics, and the law. This book provides an in-depth and comprehensive overview of these and other topics, as well as the history of the causation debate from the ancient Greeks to the logical empiricists. The chapters provide surveys of contemporary debates, while often also advancing novel and controversial claims; and each includes a comprehensive bibliography and suggestions for further reading. The book is thus the most comprehensive source of information about causation currently available, and will be invaluable for upper-level undergraduates through to professional philosophers.
The Causal Exclusion Problem
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Author : Dwayne Moore
language : en
Publisher: American University Studies
Release Date : 2014
The Causal Exclusion Problem written by Dwayne Moore and has been published by American University Studies this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2014 with Causation categories.
In The Causal Exclusion Problem, the popular strategy of abandoning any one of the principles constituting the causal exclusion problem is considered, but ultimately rejected. The metaphysical foundations undergirding the causal exclusion problem are then explored, revealing that the causal exclusion problem cannot be dislodged by undermining its metaphysical foundations - as some are in the habit of doing. Finally, the significant difficulties associated with the bevy of contemporary nonreductive solutions, from supervenience to emergentism, are expanded upon. While conducting this survey of contemporary options, however, two novel approaches are introduced, both of which may resolve the causal exclusion problem from within a nonreductive physicalist paradigm. The Causal Exclusion Problem, which relentlessly motivates the vexing causal exclusion problem and exhaustively surveys its metaphysical assumptions and contemporary responses, is ideal for an advanced undergraduate or graduate course in the philosophy of mind.
Actual Causality
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Author : Joseph Y. Halpern
language : en
Publisher: MIT Press
Release Date : 2016-08-12
Actual Causality written by Joseph Y. Halpern and has been published by MIT Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2016-08-12 with Computers categories.
Explores actual causality, and such related notions as degree of responsibility, degree of blame, and causal explanation. The goal is to arrive at a definition of causality that matches our natural language usage and is helpful, for example, to a jury deciding a legal case, a programmer looking for the line of code that cause some software to fail, or an economist trying to determine whether austerity caused a subsequent depression.
Experimental Metaphysics
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Author : David Rose
language : en
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Release Date : 2017-06-29
Experimental Metaphysics written by David Rose and has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2017-06-29 with Philosophy categories.
Metaphysics, almost entirely neglected by experimental philosophers, is the central focus of Experimental Metaphysics. The volume brings together a range of views aimed at addressing the question of how cognitive science might be relevant to metaphysics. With contributions from cognitive scientists and philosophers, chapters focus on theoretical and empirical issues involving the potential role of cognitive science in metaphysics. Alongside topics such as free will, objects and causation, in which relevant empirical evidence is discussed and connected to relevant metaphysical issues, more programmatic papers explore theoretical issues centered on the connection between cognitive science and metaphysics. This balanced approach exposes metaphysicians to philosophically relevant work in cognitive science, while showing cognitive scientists the ways in which their work might be important for philosophers. Presenting cutting-edge empirical and theoretical research, Experimental Metaphysics pushes forward the discussion and encourages further engagement with issues at the intersection of cognitive science and metaphysics.
Emergence In Context
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Author : Robert C. Bishop
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2022
Emergence In Context written by Robert C. Bishop and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2022 with Philosophy categories.
Science, philosophy of science, and metaphysics have long been concerned with the question of how order, stability, and novelty are possible and how they happen. How can order come out of disorder? This book introduces a new account, contextual emergence, seeking to answer these questions. The authors offer an alternative picture of the world with an alternative account of how novelty and order arise, and how both are possible. Contextual emergence is grounded primarily in the sciences as opposed to logic or metaphysics. It is both an explanatory and ontological account of emergence that gets beyond the impasse between "weak" and "strong" emergence in the emergence debates. It challenges the "foundationalist" or hierarchical picture of reality and emphasizes the ontological and explanatory fundamentality of multiscale stability conditions and their contextual constraints, often operating globally over interconnected, interdependent, and interacting entities and their multiscale relations. It also focuses on the conditions that make the existence, stability, and persistence of emergent systems and their states and observables possible. These conditions and constraints are irreducibly multiscale relations, so it is not surprising that scientific explanation is often multiscale. Such multiscale conditions act as gatekeepers for systems to access modal possibilities (e.g., reducing or enhancing a system's degrees of freedom). Using examples from across the sciences, ranging from physics to biology to neuroscience and beyond, this book demonstrates that there is an empirically well-grounded, viable alternative to ontological reductionism coupled with explanatory anti-reductionism (weak emergence) and ontological disunity coupled with the impossibility of robust scientific explanation (strong emergence). Central metaphysics of science concerns are also addressed. Emergence in Context: A Treatise in Twenty-First Century Natural Philosophy is written primarily for philosophers of science, but also professional scientists from multiple disciplines who are interested in emergence and particularly in the metaphysics of science.
Re Emergence
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Author : Gerald Vision
language : en
Publisher: MIT Press
Release Date : 2011
Re Emergence written by Gerald Vision and has been published by MIT Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2011 with Philosophy categories.
A philosopher offers a non-physicalist theory of mind, revisiting and defending a key doctrine of emergentism. The presence of sentience in a basically material reality is among the mysteries of existence. Many philosophers of mind argue that conscious states and properties are nothing beyond the matter that brings them about. Finding these arguments less than satisfactory, Gerald Vision offers a nonphysicalist theory of mind. Revisiting and defending a key doctrine of the once widely accepted school of philosophy known as emergentism, Vision proposes that conscious states are emergents, although they depend for their existence on their material bases. Although many previous emergentist theories have been decisively undermined, Vision argues that emergent options are still viable on some issues. In Re-Emergence he explores the question of conscious properties arising from brute, unthinking matter, making the case that there is no equally plausible non-emergent alternative. Vision defends emergentism even while conceding that conscious properties and states are realized by or strongly supervene on the physical. He argues, however, that conscious properties cannot be reduced to, identified with, or given the right kind of materialist explanation in terms of the physical reality on which they depend. Rather than use emergentism simply to assail the current physicalist orthodoxy, Vision views emergentism as a contribution to understanding conscious aspects. After describing and defending his version of emergentism, Vision reviews several varieties of physicalism and near-physicalism, finding that his emergent theory does a better job of coming to grips with these phenomena.
Physicalism And Mental Causation
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Author : Sven Walter
language : en
Publisher: Imprint Academic
Release Date : 2003
Physicalism And Mental Causation written by Sven Walter and has been published by Imprint Academic this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2003 with Philosophy categories.
This book presents a range of essays on the conceptual foundations of physicalism, mental causation and human agency. Physicalism--the thesis that everything there is in the world, including human minds, is constituted by basic physical entities--has dominated the philosophy of mind during the last few decades. Yet, there is no generally accepted definition for most of the core notions of physicalism, including fundamental notions such as 'causation, ' 'determination, ' 'realization, ' or even 'physicalism' itself. This lack of an unanimous conceptual foundation for the physicalist agenda impedes the solution of more specific problems in the philosophy of mind, for instance problems pertaining to mental causation and human agency. -- -- As of yet, a comprehensive philosophical reflection on various key concepts and how they relate to the more specific problems physicalism attempts to solve is still missing. This book presents a range of essays written by established and leading authors in the field on the conceptual foundations of physicalism and its interconnections with philosophical problems concerning mental causation and human agency.
Levels Of Explanation
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Author : Katie Robertson
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2024-11-30
Levels Of Explanation written by Katie Robertson and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2024-11-30 with Science categories.
This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read at Oxford Scholarship Online and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations. The different sciences furnish us with a wide variety of explanations: some work at macroscopic scales, some work at microscopic scales, and some operate across different levels. How do these different explanatory levels relate to one another, and what is an explanatory level in the first place? Over the last 50 years, more and more philosophers--both reductionists and anti-reductionists--no longer subscribe to the idea that the best explanation resides at the fundamental physical level. New challenges arise from the success of scientific explanations employing multi-level models which mix levels of explanation, from distinctive differences between levels structures in biology, cognitive science, and social science, from the apparently radical reimagining of the explanatory role of spacetime in our current best theories of fundamental physics, and from the enduring mystery of how higher-level explanations are possible in the first place. These questions naturally connect to classic philosophical ways of thinking about the relationships between levels: reduction, emergence, and fundamentality. This volume presents a snapshot of cutting-edge research on explanatory levels, from their conceptual foundations to the details of how they are used in scientific practice.