Variable relativity of causation is good
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10815543 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Veli-Pekka Parkkinen (0000-0002-2927-7922), Veli‐Pekka Parkkinen (University of Bergen, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 200 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Publication date | 2022-05-03 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Synthese (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0039-7857 • E-ISSN: 1573-0964 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11229-022-03676-0 |
| OpenAlex | W4225317045 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 13 |
Interventionism is a theory of causation with a pragmatic goal: to define causal concepts that are useful for reasoning about how things could, in principle, be purposely manipulated. In its original presentation, Woodward’s (2003) interventionist definition of causation is relativized to an analyzed variable set. In Woodward (2008), Woodward changes the definition of the most general interventionist notion of cause, contributing cause, so that it is no longer relativized to a variable set. This derelativization of interventionism has not gathered much attention, presumably because it is seen as an unproblematic way to save the intuition that causal relations are objective features of the world. This paper first argues that this move has problematic consequences. Derelativization entails two concepts of unmediated causal relation that are not coextensional, but which nonetheless do not entail different conclusions about manipulability relations within any given variable set. This is in conflict with the pragmatic orientation at the core of interventionism. The paper then considers various approaches for resolving this tension but finds them all wanting. It is concluded that interventionist causation should not be derelativized in the first place. Various considerations are offered rendering that conclusion acceptable
Causation · Common cause and special cause · Epistemology · International relations · Interventionism (politics) · Mathematical economics · Metaphysics · Philosophy of language · Philosophy of science · Political science · Biomedical Text Mining and Ontologies · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science
Causation, Physics, and the Constitution of Reality
Making Things Happen
Causation, Prediction, and Search
Causation in biology
A Functional Account of Causation; or, A Defense of the Legitimacy of Causal Thinking by Reference to the Only Standard That Matters—Usefulness (as Opposed to Metaphysics or Agreement with Intuitive Judgment)
When to Expect Violations of Causal Faithfulness and Why It Matters
Interventions and Causal Inference
How to Be a Humean Interventionist
Response to Strevens
Introduction to the Epistemology of Causation
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |