Interdefining causation and intervention

Dialectica 63 (2):175-194 (2009)
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Abstract

Non-reductive interventionist theories of causation and methodologies of causal reasoning embedded in that theoretical framework have become increasingly popular in recent years. This paper argues that one variant of an interventionist account of causation, viz. the one presented, for example, in Woodward (2003 ), is unsuited as a theoretical fundament of interventionist methodologies of causal reasoning, because it renders corresponding methodologies incapable of uncovering a causal structure in a finite number of steps. This finding runs counter to Woodward's own assessment and to other recent studies which presume that Woodward's version of interventionism is effectively applicable to uncover causal structures, e.g. Campbell (2007 ) or Shapiro and Sober (2007 ).

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Michael Baumgartner
Bergen University

Citations of this work

Interventionism and Epiphenomenalsim.Michael Baumgartner - 2010 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 40 (3):359-383.
Methodology, ontology, and interventionism.James Woodward - 2015 - Synthese 192 (11):3577-3599.
Mechanistic Constitution in Neurobiological Explanations.Jens Harbecke - 2010 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 24 (3):267-285.
The Agency Theory of Causality, Anthropomorphism, and Simultaneity.Marco Buzzoni - 2014 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 28 (4):375-395.

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References found in this work

Causality: Models, Reasoning and Inference.Judea Pearl - 2000 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Causality and explanation.Wesley C. Salmon - 1998 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Physical Causation.Phil Dowe - 2000 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Explanation and understanding.Georg Henrik von Wright - 1971 - Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.

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